THE MOMENT OF CREATION

Jacks Roast Dinner in a Bap is Born!

We'll even send our cherubs out to deliver! 

Launches Jubilee Sunday! 

Open Sundays 12-4pm

Eat in/Takeaway/Delivery

It's Sunday Morning, you've been up all night hanging over the porcelain god, what a cracking night out that was or the kids have driven you to insanity through there need to survive on only 40 minutes sleep .... the fog starts to lift around 2pm, the stomach growls and all you can think about is last weeks Roast dinner at the local. But can you be damned to get up or would you even get a table because as per usual you've left everything till the last minute!

If only somebody would just deliver a Roast Dinner Ohhhhhhh.

Choose Your Meat

Roast Hereford Beef £6.50

Roast Free Range Chicken £6.50

Roast Gloucester Old Spot Piggy & Crackling £6.50

WITH

5” Bap

Duck Fat Roast Potatoes

Sausage, Sage & Thyme Stuffing

Lashings of Gravy

Watercress

Choose your accompaniment

Horseradish Sauce

Apple Sauce

Bread Sauce

Pickled Vegtables

Colmans

PUDS

Old Skool Classics

Chocolate Concrete & Pink Custard £3.75

Our cherubs deliver within 1 mile radius!

£15 minimum spend

We take credit card 50p charge

0207 1839135

Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/jacksse22

Email blondiedicamden@yahoo.co.uk

www.chocolateconcreteandpinkcustard@blogspot.com

**Sunday 17th June is Fathers Day

We will not be serving up our Baps or delivering as we have a Deep South BBQ going on!

To Book Email blondiedicamden@yahoo.co.uk

Is the life of a Cafe owner chic?!

Sometimes I sit back and reflect on what customers have said during the day. I remember one particular lady who popped in and told me how fantastic, chic and elegant it must be running my own cafe! That one day she wanted to run her own cafe.

Is the life of a cafe owner chic, elegant, glamorous? Does it guarantee a fruitful life? Ha! 

To some people who are stuck in their dull job perhaps so, maybe that is why some people decide to swap the hum drum 9-5 rat race city job for a chance to run a business in this industry, even though they have no experience within hospitality, they want to follow their dream of owning their own place. I followed my dream and now I have come full circle (well almost) perhaps the long way round but hey what it has given me is life experience. Going to Catering College followed by a Hospitality Degree, 10 years in Michelin trained kitchens, saving lives in The London Ambulance Service, serving as a Police Officer for the Metropolitan Police and now owning and running Jacks with my fiancé Barista G aka Alex.

I get asked on a weekly basis for advice and what I do is tell it how it is, after all I am northern, what you see is what you get with me, I say it how it is and I speak my mind. The last thing I want is somebody going into this business with a false sense of what life is like! One thing I do say to people is follow your dreams, don't sit at your desk everyday thinking "what if". 

But I also give a little side dish of advice, perhaps a word of caution, which goes something like this... If you have no experience in the hospitality industry you are already behind. It doesn't matter how many cafes you visit, how many coffees you drink, how many hours you spend sitting in Borough Market, reading cookery books, hosting dinner parties at home! Trust me.... it’s a very competitive market out there.

For those who have successful businesses in our industry, I’m sure they will echo what I say; it is rewarding and satisfying and can be glamorous (at times) but it is also very very very hard work. I have a lot of respect for friends and ex colleagues who have had the balls to set up their own business and create their own brand, survive this awful climate we have been going through the last few years, dare I say it, recession or even double recession! They are very incredible and talented individuals and I hope that this prosperous industry continues to re pay them for all the hard work they put in. 

Leaving The Metropolitan Police to pursue my dream of running a business wasn't an easy decision, handing my warrant card in July 19th 2010 put the fear of god into me. We put all our savings into buying Jacks lease (with a little help from The Big G) and I waved goodbye to 40k plus a year job!

It was probably the most terrifying experience of my life and it continued to terrify me for at least the first year. 

Jacks always has been a stepping-stone for us, a trial, an experiment to see what works and what doesn't! The Cafe, the Coffee, the Private Parties, Saturday Supper nights, Sunday Roasts, Festivals etc Some things have gone to plan, some things haven't, it's been trial and error. Enjoyable? God yes. So what does the future hold for Jacks..........bigger premises? A kitchen (god that would be nice!) and the chance to do my Saturday Suppers every day of the week? 

It's a hung Jury! 

Ooooooooosh it's SPRING!

It feels like summer today, not Spring wow wee! Amazing weather!
Sweating clearing up the mess in Jacks after a shin dig last night. 


Received the new tables for out the front yesterday, fab! Just need a window in our busy schedule to put them together!


It's been a busy 3 weeks running Jacks, 2 Saturday Suppers, 3 Private Parties, spent 2 days catering for Chelsea Arts @ Private Viewings in East London, baking a huge cake for Dulwich Football Team and one of their players 7th Birthday, which was fun! 

                                                                             


Saturday we had another Supper @ Jacks which was fully booked and top notch!

 

On Sunday we hosted another Private Party at Jacks for a lovely local family. It was a joint 50th and we did our best to make there day as special as possible.They all thoroughly enjoyed it and dressed the back of Jacks up themselves! Fab day......

I usually do 2 Saturday Suppers a Month, however i am mindful that the kids break up this week for Easter and most of you will be taking advantage of this weather so during half term there are no Suppers or Roasts, just Jacks Cafe will be open. 

April Dates for Saturday Supper & Roast ......

Sunday 22nd April - Monthly Roast **taking bookings now**

Saturday 28th April - Supper **taking bookings now**

May Dates for Saturday Supper & Roast etc......

Saturday 5th May - Supper 

Sunday 13th May - GOOSE GREEN FETE "Jacks BBQ" 11-4

Saturday 19th May - Supper

June Dates so far ......

Sunday 17th June - Fathers day Roast **taking bookings 3 sittings**

Jacks Cafe, Easter Brunch n Stuff......

* We will be open from Wed 28th March closing for an Easter Break on Easter Monday week.

* Easter Friday we will be open from 10-2.30 for Brunch

  "Peggy's Hangover Cure, Go Green, Homemade Salt Beef, Colmans&Dill Pickle Bagels"

Cheers Everyone
PR Roxy Heart
#TeamJacks

Contact Di on 0207 1839135 OR Email blondiedicamden@yahoo.co.uk
Follow us on twitter @JacksSE22

Jacks is coming to YOU! #Niceone

What a beautiful day! Roll on the Spring, almost here! Yipeee

March is slipping by so quickly i wanted to let you know what we are up to and share with you Roast & Saturday Supper dates and also the launch of our Deliveries to Local Businesses in SE22.

We kick off the month with the first of our Saturday Suppers on the 10th which we are fully booked for. Followed by our Monthly Roast which falls on Mothers Day .... for those of you who had forgotten it's the 18th March ;o) we have 50 booked over 3 sittings #nosweat ;o) 

We have 1 more date in March for our Saturday Supper which is the 24th so if you fancy booking please let me know as tables go quickly. Scallops, Pollock, Monkfish, Rabbit, Duck on the menu, you name it, as long as it's in season ;o) Plus Chocolate, Cheesecake & Lancashire Cheese n Alex's Homemade Eccles Cakes.

I have 2 Private Parties this month at Jacks, i love doing them as each one is different and tailor made for each client. The funniest thing is this month they are both Sunday Roast Birthday Parties! A yorkshire lass and a lancashire lass certainly know how to make those Yorkie Puds rise baby!

Last week we decided to trial out delivering our lunches to local businesses in SE22! On foot Go Girl!

We appreciate that most people have a very small window for lunch and Co-op pre packed sandwiches just don't hit the spot. SO we thought let's bring Jacks to YOU! The feedback was great and so #TeamJacks will launch this week. Alex is on route to the printers to pick up our menus as i write this.

(thankyou Lou who runs her own printing business in Bromley. Fantastic service. Always happy to help even last minute).

Printing Progress 020 8464 1484

I will try and get round all the businesses by the end of the week to give out our bespoke Jacks Business Delivery Menus, if you would like the menu emailing let me know. Please bare with us as i have had a number of enquiries (which is fab) about delivering as far as Peckham Rye, however, for the time being we are going to see how it goes and keep it quite local. 

If it works then who knows, i'll dig the bicycle out attach a box and off we go!

Stew n Dumplings will be back in Late October and i am in the middle of brainstorming another night to replace the famous Stew Nights.

One more thing before i dash off to take the Lemon Tart out of the oven.... 

Don't forget it's British Pie Week this week, we will have a Pie & Mash on each day to celebrate the British Staple! Kicking off with a cracking Salt Beef & Colmans. See you tomorrow ;o)  

 

PR Roxy Heart *woof*

Cheers Big G!

The last 15 months at Jacks have been fantastic, hard, but so so worthwhile. I don’t know about Alex but I wish I had of had the balls to run my own business years ago and skipped the copper bit! 

Although it wouldn’t of been financially viable, we owe everything to The Big G, Alex’s Grandma, Miss Elsie Butler. Sadly the Big G passed away in November but Jacks lives on in her memory. I was lucky enough to know her for almost 3 years.

What an amazing lady. Born and bred in Lancashire, first stepping foot in to the world in Eccles, she was raised in Manchester. During WW2 she was evacuated to Blackpool to The Phillips family, she would later marry Albert Phillips the ever so handsome son, when he arrived home from war. Albert & Elsie settled in Blackpool and had 2 daughters Jean & Denise.

The thing that made me laugh about The Big G was she was so strong willed, she knew what she liked and what she didn’t like, a bit like me ;o)

Alex told me she drank like a fish, always had a litre bottle of wine in the fridge, loved a smoke, Roast Chicken and Spam baps were her staple, it became a running joke in the family.

To the Big G I just want to say THANKYOU for giving us both this opportunity, wish you were here!

X

Happy New Year from #TeamJacks

Happy New Year!

I’m sitting writing this blog entry with a glass of fizz in hand, in front of an open fire in a cottage in the heart of Suffolk. Bliss…..After last years New Years crazy shenanigans with the girls, 2 parties later and falling out of a cab and passing out… Ab Fab style may I add! We thought we would try a quiet way to bring the New Year in, I’ll try anything once!

Loading up the car …… 2 x Bottles of Champagne CHECK, 7 x Bottles of Cava CHECK (for breakfast of course!) 2 x Crates of Becks CHECK, 1 x Bottle of Gordons CHECK, A litre of Baileys CHECK, 4 x Bottles of Vintage Cidre CHECK, 1 x Bottle of Muscat Dessert Wine CHECK……Happy New Year!!

What I love about this area is, it’s a 2 hour drive from London, your in the very heart of real England, surrounded by countryside, thatched cottages and fantastic local produce. Less than a mile from the cottage are unique little kitchen ware shops, Partridges the famous local haberdashery shop where I picked up some wicked blackbird pie funnels, perfect for my Game pies. Butchers, Fruit & Veg and quirky shops in abundance. Plus a quaint little Coffee Shop called Crabtrees which serve lovely coffee and cake.

The village was thriving New Years Eve, all the jolly hockey sticks were home from University visiting Mummy & Daddy and the locals were out and about with there wicker baskets and hessian bags over flowing with groceries.

I popped in to the local butchers to pick up my favourite bacon, Suffolks finest Smoked Black Treacle Bacon, god it’s good. I walked out with ½ dozen Duck Eggs, Hadleighs Black Pudding, Pork Sausages and rushed back to cook up breakfast for Alex.

New Years Eve consisted of Jools Holland, homemade Mrs Kirkhams & Caramalised Onion Quiche, plenty of fizz and both of us puffing out Zzz’s in front of the fire. It was gorgeous.

Damn we missed it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh well. We both giggled at the fact we had had such a lazily indulgent New Year and decided to make the most of the New Years Day sunshine. We ventured out on a 2 hour walk following the river through Hadleigh and working off some of those mince pies!

It would have been rude to bypass the pub on the way back so we nipped in for a couple of pints of Aspalls and then linked arms and staggered back to the cottage. Fire lit and the Pork Shoulder joint in the oven for 5 hours, we settled back into the warmth with Dorothy and Wizard of Oz, we both love how camp this film is.

Alex is a cracking cook! Look what she did!

Alex New Years Day Roast Pork Shoulder, Crackling, Pear Anise Mash, Carrots, Parsnips, Kale & Lashings of Gravy! Don't miss our next Roast @ Jacks on Feb 12th ;o)

Followed by…

Apple, Pecan & Hazlenut Crumble n Custard

So that’s it for another year, best wishes for 2012 from #TeamJacks

X

Jacks December Newsletter

Hi de Hi Festive Campers

Alex & I wanted to thank all our customers & suppliers, who have supported us during our first year of launching, making Jacks in to a local treasure.

We love East Dulwich, the location, the uniqueness and of course, our customers and are really looking forward to 2012!

Since we bought Jacks just over a year ago, we have refurbished it, put our stamp on it, created new menus, shown a new approach to customer service, had 18 Seasonal Saturday Suppers, all of which have been fully booked weeks in advance, thank you. We have also enjoyed running our monthly Sunday Roasts, Private Parties, our one off Pudding Club Night, with guest judge Edd Kimber (Winner of British Bake off first series).

The Goose Green Fete 2011 “Keep Calm & Have a Sausage Buttie” stall went down a bomb. Our infamous Stew n Dumpling Nights were launched in October 2011 and have been a big success, we will of course carry them over into the New Year! For all those tired purses and wallets we will offer for the whole of January Buy One Stew Get One Half Price & BYO! Every Weds & Thurs 5-9pm.

Best of all June 2011 we were nominated for Best Coffee House in London, shortlisted twice and voted into the Top 8 by London Lifestyle Awards, just dipping out of the Top 3. Still, a magnificent achievement for us and the team at Jacks. Then to top it Time Out gave us 5 Red Stars! WOW!

Thankyou Team Jacks & Climpson & Sons who supply our amazing coffee beans.

A big shout out to my partner Alex who made that happen, with her consistency, she really does rock that Espresso machine and creates latte art

with great flair, training all the staff and doing her best to be in Jacks as much as possible, as well as juggling a full time Job and having a Masters in Fine Art & Sculpture. Amazing lady, thank you!

We had our last Sunday Roast of the year on the 18^th December “Jacks Ultimate Crimbo Roast” and our last Saturday Supper of the year was on the 10^th December. If you haven’t been to one of our Saturday Suppers or Roasts here are a few dates which I will advertise in Jacks too.

To book call Jacks between opening hours on 0207 1839135

OR Email

blondiedicamden@yahoo.co.uk

Saturday 14^th January – FULLY BOOKED

Saturday 21^st January –

Saturday 28^th January –

Saturday 4^th February –

Sunday 12^th February –

Saturday 10^th March –

Sunday 18^th March – “Mothers Day Roast”

Saturday 24^th March –

“Burns Night”

Tuesday 25^th January – Tables available

Come and celebrate Burns Night with us & BYO!

Honour what Scotland has to offer as we mark this occasion with a fun quiz & a Scottish based menu! Macsween Haggis, Neeps & Tatties

Venison Stew, Arbroath Smokie Croquettes, Whiskey Caramel Chocolate Cake to name but a few!! Menu up in Jacks!

“Valentines”

Tuesday 14^th February – Tables available

We will be offering a Tasting Menu for Valentines Day. Starting off with

Canapés on arrival. BYO Fizz…. Menu Coming soon…….BOOK NOW!

Finally, we want to wish you all a Very Merry Xmas & Prosperous New Year from all of us.

We re–open after Xmas break on Tuesday 10^th Jan.

See you in 2012

Di, Alex & #Team Jacks X