New Milton Advertiser 2nd Oct 2020

Friday 2nd October 2020 · 33

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Andrew raises El with revamp of co ee house

BY JON WALLER

Park Hotel in Brockenhurst and manager of the Gordleton Mill in Lymington. “Since I’ve opened the doors at El Rico’s the first fortnight has gone really well and we’ve been pretty busy,” Andrew told the A&T. “People know this place and have very fond mem- ories of it, and it’s great to have that. “First and foremost I want to keep this as a coffee house and make it known as somewhere that’s serving purely great coffee and is a great place to meet up for locals and young- sters.” Andrew prides himself on us- ing sustainable produce to help the environment and local sup- pliers. “We use Red Garage cof-

Milton for the benefit of local people as I think there’s a really good market for those things in the town and I’d love to make that dream a reality.” Andrew is looking to build on the heritage of El Rico, which was the place to be for young people during the 1960s. Reo- pened three years ago by local entrepreneur Mary Rice-Mun- dy who had run it in the 1960s, it briefly brought back the glory of its heyday, before an unsuc- cessful attempt to turn it into a bedsit. Having stepped in to rent the facility from Mary, Andrew will be leaning on his seven years of experience in the hospitality sector, which includes spells as assistant manager at the Forest

A NEW MILTON coffee house which was a swinging sixties hotspot has returned to its roots as part of a young man’s dream to build a hospitality franchise. The El Rico Coffee House in Whitefield Road has been taken over by Andrew Witt and under- gone a slight name change to El Rico’s. It is the first part of An- drew’s goal of owning a chain of coffee houses and cocktail bars under that banner, he revealed to the A&T. “The ultimate dream for me would be to open up a sophis- ticated cocktail bar and also to have a thriving coffee house, both under the El Rico’s brand name,” Andrew said. “I’d love to do that in New

Andrew Witt wants to start a franchise after taking over the coffee house

very good for people who love their coffee,” he said. “It’s the locality that we want to promote, and we have everything local – even our tea- bags are locally sourced and everything we use is biodegrad- able and no plastic.” He believes a “massive string” to the El Rico’s bow is its milk- shake menu, with 47 flavours currently available for custom- ers to sample. “We are doing milkshakes similar to the Shakeaway style, which are really popular at the moment,” he said. “We’re de- veloping more flavours, they’re freshly made and are absolutely scrumptious. “We’ve got everything from banana to banoffee, Oreos and Kinder Bueno and we also of- fer vegan milkshake options, including veggie cream, and all

fee, which is created by David Redpath in Ashley, who roasts it in his garage – hence the name – and it is fantastic. It’s

the alternative milks – such as soya, almond, oat meal; there’s something for everyone here.” El Rico’s will be open from 7am on weekdays (9am on Sat- urdays) until 5pm and offers snacks, such as millionaire’s shortbread and cookies. There are no plans to extend that to hot food, and Andrew said he will offer a loyalty scheme where customers get their sev- enth coffee free. Andrew added: “We need to get the word out and let people know we’re here and we’re all about helping out and serving the locals and the locality. “I do see a market as well for people coming into the area. There seems to be a lot of stay- cationers coming to the New Forest at the moment and I think they’re the type of people

who’d love coming here as well and that’s very much a develop- ing market we are well suited to provide for.” Andrew plans to spruce up the décor and, being highly safety conscious, concedes the ongoing pandemic means it is not the ideal time to open a café but stressed he has taken all the steps he can to assure cus- tomers the café is well versed in safety measures. “Obviously it’s quite scary with the Covid but we have got all the systems in place and all of the signs and got the NHS Q app and the track and trace,” Andrew said. “People should feel confident coming here they’re going to be served a wonderful cup of coffee, which has local roots, in a very friendly and relaxed at- mosphere.”

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