The Great British Menu – BBC2

We made it on to national TV last Friday 6th May.   If you missed it you can still see it on Iplayer until Thursday 12th May – our five minutes of fame as part of this popular series.  If you don’t want to watch the entire program, find the interesting bit at about the 11th minute …

The filming happened last November – we got a good insight into just how much effort goes into each few minutes of TV!  Thanks to all the volunteers and customers who helped make it happen.  Alas celebrity chef André Garrett who visited us did not in the end win for the South West so none of us will get to go to the big banquet.  But we’ve already had a few extra customers as a result.

Having a lunchtime meeting in your office?  Galleries Café can now deliver sandwiches for that working lunch anywhere in Freshford or Limpley Stoke.  Email us for a menu and prices.

We WILL require 24 hours notice.

Here is a quote from our first customer for this service:

“Thanks again for the brilliant spread of food and drink. The food arrived on time and we were all very impressed with how well presented the food was as well as the very wide range of fillings served in either wraps or buns which were all delicious.   Everyone at the event really enjoyed the food and came back for seconds and thirds, so much so, that there wasn’t a single wrap left by the end of the day.”

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From October onwards, any customer with a Reverse Credit account who hits the £500 mark of spending is entitled to a £5 credit voucher to be spent at the shop.

We have just issued the 16th of these vouchers.

In fact three of them have gone to just one household!

Customers who run out of credit – ie who buy more at the shop than their standing order allows for – can top up their account by credit card.  That way, it counts towards the £500 target.  If on the other hand they pay cash for any purchases then that amount won’t count …

The Countryside Alliance has named the Galleries Shop & Café the best Village Shop / Post Office of the South West!  The national winners will be announced at a House of Lords rception on Wednesday 30th March.  We will be sending a small delegation!  Watch this space.

The Telegraph ran a competition for the best small shops of the year.  We competed for the Best Corner Shop category – and ended up on a shortlist of 3.  The prize would have been a Mary Portas Queen of Retail course scholarship for our manager Christine which we think would have been fascinating for her and do wonders for our shop!  The team made a clandestine visit in December.

Three of us went to the award ceremony in Millbank Tower, London, an event where the champagne flowed.

We did meet Mary Portas and enjoyed the outing – but were beaten to first place by another community shop!  The Saturday Telegraph of 19th Feb had a long feature about the awards.  National fame!

Thursday 20th January at 8 pm – Freshford School Hall

The Greener Together Group’s solar information evening was a happy event – the school hall was full, Solarsense gave an excellent presentation, Phil Challinor showed us how solar panels need not be an eyesore even in a conservation village, and locals who “had already done it” were there to share their experiences.  A copy of the presentation is available from Graham Jenkinson, email grahamjenkinson@tiscali.co.uk.

And in case you hadn’t heard, FLiSCA’s planning application to place an array of solar panels at the top of the field to generate power for the shop has now been approved.

VAT went up to 20% from today – but the shop has managed to absorb the difference.  Our prices will not change!

Two chances last week to see and buy silver jewellery from local silversmith Beata Høst! Beata brought her collection to the shop on two mornings.  She has only recently moved from Freshford to Bradford on Avon and still volunteers regularly in the shop.

Limpley Stoke author Caroline Kington launched “Spring Mischief”, the third novel in her Summerstoke series, at our shop on Wednesday 15th December.  This book is published by Bed & Bolster in BoA – so this book is as local as it gets!  Signed copies are available at the shop at £7.99.

Caroline reading from her new book