Out & About May 2017

Caf é Culture ROMILLA ARBER says her team at Honesty Lambourn have created a welcoming environment for busy mums, the local racing community and a starting point for cyclists with the new Honesty Cycle Ride

This spring we will be starting to sell our salad boxes, which we hope will go down well with those customers wanting something different from the usual sandwich or wrap. Trying to develop new products for the coffee shops is definitely one of the most interesting competition, while continuing to offer a good and varied range of products to our customers so they stay engaged, is a challenge. Lambourn is of course well known as the Valley of the Race Horse, being home to many trainers and breeders and it is nice being able to offer them a hot breakfast or a hot lunch. We also get a lot of young mums with their children, meeting other mums and there is plenty of space for prams, which is always a concern for parents with young babies. Louis and Jack are the main employees at Lambourn and have been with us since we first things about running the business. Trying to stay one step ahead of the

a little bit more for bread and the handmade pastries, rather than the factory-made alternatives that, yes are cheaper, but that contain so many hidden extras that they cause damage to one’s health. As a way of engaging with the local community we are about to launch the Honesty Cycle Ride. Cyclists will start off from Honesty Lambourn and when they get to Honesty Inkpen will be able to collect an Honesty cycle vest, specially designed for us by Black Hound sportswear company. Cycling fits in very well with the Honesty ethos in that being healthy helps us make the most of life, eating well and living well. So come along to Honesty Lambourn next time you are at a loose end. We are next to the old police station and there will be cup of Honesty blend coffee waiting for you.

H onesty Lambourn opened on October 1, 2016. It is the biggest of our coffee shop sites and sits on the high street rather like Honesty Kingsclere. There is plenty of parking in the car park at the back which is a great benefit to the place. It is open from 8am until 4pm every day. The shop sells cooked breakfasts in the morning and hot lunches in the afternoon, along with all the Honesty favourites like the French pastries, biscuits, cakes, sandwiches, wraps and panini. We have also recently started to serve a beef burger in a bun and hot meat pies, which are proving very popular with the locals. All the food is made either in our wholesale kitchen or in our bakery and then delivered first thing in the morning. This is the model that works well for our coffee shops. We don’t want to be cooking on site as there are all sorts of implications then regarding ventilation and odour. We are always looking at new ideas for ‘grab and go’ items to make peoples lunches more interesting.

opened. Jack is off travelling for three months, but we hope he will return when he’s back in the UK. They both live in Lambourn and are cheerful and hardworking and really want the place to be a success. Courtenay has also been with us since we opened, working on Saturdays. Her grandmother is a regular of ours. Making a success of the coffee shop in Lambourn really is about engaging with the local community and making sure that everyone who lives in Lambourn and in the surrounding villages knows we are there. It is also about convincing people that it is better to pay

30