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WHAT A YEAR! 

If you've taken the time out to read this, there's a fair chance you'll know that we are at a historic moment for the Bakery.

It is a calm moment sitting here writing this, I feel focussed and optimistic. I rediscovered a couple of kinda negative ‘draft post musings’ sitting in my inbox since I last posted in 2016 that never saw the light of day and never will.

It's cathartic for me to take this moment to look back, acknowledge the last few years, then crack on.

This week we'll finally be letting you know what we have in store for you this summer at Pettigrew Bakeries, so keep an eye out on @pettigrewbakes

Where are we now?

We have earned your trust, loyalty and respect as a fiercely independent family run business in the ‘burbs of the Cardiff community. We are a humble bunch, working our butts off for consistency & advancement, to be the best we can be and maybe even inspire others. To you who champion us, thank you. We put everything into the Bakery, hearing your stories and seeing your joy keeps us motivated and hungry for success.

Acknowledgements...

There are too many people to list individually so I won't do that, but a massive THANK YOU to team Pettigrew Bakeries & Tea Rooms past and present. You know who you are because you're either still with us (several of you for 7+ years), or you know the Pettigrew revolving door is always open to you :o). You like minded workaholics put your soul into making ideas come to life.

Surviving the past 5 years, and getting to the point we are at today, would not have happened without Rhys. To save him embarrassment I'll keep it short. Rhys carried the Bakery production in those early years as we learnt together (usually the hard way) with a ton of trial and error and within the confines of trading 7 days a week (under a mountain of debt). I got stuck back into baking at this time in a way that (naively) I thought I wouldn't be doing. Spending hours, then years, baking together and bringing on a team of self-taught bakers.

It turns out that doing this from scratch creates the strongest foundation to whether even a global pandemic!

A few years back Rhys started working on his own Bakery project and took the plunge over the summer last year to go all in on Carrot Top Bakery. Do yourself a favour and give him a follow @carrottopbakery, find him at weekly farmers markets, and various cafes/venues that proudly serve uncompromising hand-crafted baking. This guy is the real deal & does not, cannot & will not compromise.

Rhys is a friend and a huge inspiration to me, thanks Rhys for everything you poured into helping build up Pettigrews.

Family 

Quick thanks go to our families for unwavering love and support, including investing to make our dreams a reality! We lost our dad Steve earlier this year, but we know how proud he was of his sons and all his family, we could not have opened without his support.

I’m so proud to see how many people's lives have been touched by Pettigrew. One of those absolutely smashing it right now is Gareth who is proudly living his dream next door to us at Let Them See Cake @letthemseecake. Gareth & Ryan put everything into their vision and seeing it alive and kicking, and our neighbours, is awesome.

Thank you to our amazing wholesale pals, who over the years have fiercely supported us and championed our produce. It is really tough to say goodbye for now and not see what you do with our products in your own artistry. It is a travesty how little wholesale choice there is for real bread made in Cardiff. One day we will be back in the market I hope.

Cardiff Bakers/Bakeries

The emerging Real Bread baking scene of Cardiff is such a joy to see! From my experience Bakers are good people who get a kick out of making other people happy. You just won’t hear a bad word uttered about our competitors in the City. There is room for all of us and we are all different & champion each others learning and success. Basically if you hear someone chatting crap, running one of us down it'll always tell you way more about them.

“If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. And when that person has ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until you can hardly bear to look at it.

A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts it will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.”

― Roald Dahl, The Twits

The current team of Bakery heroes make me proud every day; every baker, every server, everyone supporting us behind the scenes. It is such a privilege working with you all. We are building such a cool unique business together and the next chapter is going to be even more exciting.

Thanks for taking a minute to read this, to understand what we are grateful for, and indulging us as we put the past 5 years to bed and reinvent Pettigrew Bakeries for the years to come.

See you soon

David & Lee - June 2021

Pushing Change Pushing Doors - Pettigrew Bakeries

"Work on the business not in the business"

Pettigrew Bakeries is the name of our new bakery which is going to open in 595 Cowbridge Road East, Victoria Park, Cardiff this coming spring 2016.

The brief is straightforward, we are expert bakers, we love all things baked, we make as much as we can ourselves from awesome local producers in our (very) little home in Pettigrew Tea Rooms, Bute Park. We use a serious amount of bread and have always wanted to bake our own but never had the space.

We are equally passionate about World class produce made right here in South Wales, served for the community in Cardiff and further afield. West Cardiff has a wonderfully vibrant community who support real local producers. We cannot wait to play our part in that local place, serving our style of traditional British baking on our doorstep, Ely, Canton, Llandaff, Fairwater, Victoria Park & beyond!

The builders move in tomorrow to start work in the regeneration, restoration and general transformation of this beautiful traditional Victorian shop.

I am going to document exactly what we are planning and how it will work out over the coming weeks, but first off here is some background about how we got where we are today. Sunday 29th November 2015.

Change!

A year ago my major concern was what would happen to the operation of Pettigrew Tea Rooms if I wasn't there, knowing that some major personal changes were looming meaning I wouldn't be able to continue managing my business and serving customers.

If you open your own business, success can hinge on how you embrace change. I cannot stress this enough. The tea rooms have demanded change that I could never have envisioned or predicted. To do the business justice we chose to embrace and adapt, often making painful changes along the way. This has been tough on everyone at the Tea Rooms, we keep our staff and they experience the difficulty and uncertainty change brings. There is one big benefit of continual change for improvement; when change comes, as one team, we are ready to embrace it with both hands.

A year ago my Supervisors became Managers taking the position as head of our family leading Pettigrew Tea Rooms. Our 4th year of operation has been the busiest by far, welcoming more people than ever, adding more complexities to our menu, cooked breakfasts, better ingredients, new local suppliers, more team members, challenges and triumphs.

Our Breakfasts have been a huge challenge to make a reality but a huge success, thanks to everyone who helped. Have a read about them here http://gourmetgorro.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/pettigrew-tea-rooms-bute-park-hunt-for.html

Image Credit Gourmet Gorro @GourmetGorro

Image Credit Gourmet Gorro @GourmetGorro

Nothing is perfect and there are many challenges ahead of us, but we have kept what we have always had, a passionate collective of skilled people who care about where they work and responding to make it better.

Gareth Davies Sugarcraft Artist November 2015

LIKE GARETH'S PAGE HERE https://www.facebook.com/Gareth-Sugarcraft-Artist-1431233547192965/

Standing still is not an option!

From the moment I knew that the Tea Rooms were a success there was a palpable expectation of "what's next?". So alongside the changes in my life and the establishment of the Tea Rooms I have been on a search.

How do you decide what to do next? There have been no less than 5 serious expansion opportunities in the past 4 years that have peaked my interest. Tea Rooms, Cake Business', Wholesale. I have a rule that if a door appears you need to give it a little push just to see where it leads you. From this plethora of possible expansion possibilities and having sat here writing (and deleting) for hours this morning, our final decision really comes down to this...

 I LOVE BAKERIES. The tea rooms exist, because I LOVE TEA ROOMS.

I adore bread, I love the magic of making it, the science, the alchemy, the variety, the technique, the spectrum of complexity to simplicity.

There is burgeoning talent in Pettigrew Tea Rooms and now I have the opportunity to give that talent a showcase.

Wholesale bread supply in Cardiff is under competitive. There is an opportunity for quality bakeries in South Wales who can supply quality and consistency not just to a local community but to the explosion of wonderful independent business' craving quality and consistent locally baked craft products. (Note I am NOT saying there are none, but there are certainly NOT enough!)

It is an honour and an adventure to become a supplier, I hope for Pettigrew Bakeries to join the ranks of incredible Welsh suppliers bringing craft, expertise and talent to our local market here in South Wales.

We have an opportunity ahead, it is a risk, a change beyond any we have embraced before. This is one door that pushed all the way open and this time we have leapt across the threshold, screaming I WANT TO BAKE FREE!

In the coming days the builders will move in to 595 Cowbridge Road East, Victoria Park and I will keep you updated on the progress of the works as we go. Breaking news is always delivered first on Twitter @PettigrewBakes

Peace x

David

What you Want, What you Really Really Want

I think that I should win an award.

Now before you go thinking that this will be some long, conceited, rambling self congratulatory blog post about Pettigrew Tea Rooms hold on and move your mouse well away from the angry cross.

The award I deserve is "Longest Period of Maintained Procrastination Followed by Complete Digital Silence". This probably needs a little work, but I am sure there are many other writers out there feeling the January pang of guilt for the lack of input on their blogs, who would be up for a nomination.

Now to business. I have been asked quite a few questions about the Tea Rooms particularly from those who aren't lucky enough to live in or around Cardiff and haven't made it to us yet, but who followed my story up to the point of opening the doors.

For my first blog post in a wee while I thought it would be good to answer some of those questions. This will as ever be a candid and personal view that you won't catch anywhere else. If you have questions let me know in the notes at the bottom, or on my varied Pinterest, Facebook, Google+ and Twitter outlets and I will answer and add them to this post.

What did I feel during 2012?

Petrified. I decided this morning to chart my three main emotions to give you a visual representation here:

I adore excel, it is the backbone of my business.

Now to give this come context, I did not spend this year a gibbering wreck on the edge, well not often. There were only two times to memory that members of my team had to physically retrain me (now that is a good story perhaps an additional question). But fear is a great motivator for me. As I have gown up I have come to know fear and use it to get things done. Fear stimulates momentum and helps me break inertia often leading to the highest feelings of joy and accomplishment. These emotions can be felt all in the space of a day.

So it is no surprise that on January 26th 2012 when I received the news my dream was to actually become a reality I had somewhat of a 'fear spike'. Following the huge success of the launch and opening of the tea rooms it wasn't until the bad weather of May and June that the receding fear took an upward swing. You see my focus up until then had been to open Pettigrew's and get it right from the word go. After all my preparation and lengthy debate using this very blog to tell people about how I was going to 'do it right', I had very little wiggle room to mess it up and tweak it better. This new fear following the opening is the fear of being passed your best.

Passing your best is the odd fear that you have accomplished the best you could without really noticing it and it isn't until the slide that you look back and can see the peak. We had less people coming through the doors at the start of May and for one week while storms gripped the UK I thought (somewhat irrationally in retrospect) that we had seen the peak of popularity.

In June we were covered with scaffolding while some rather unexpected work was carried out, this  helped neither my nerves or the customer head count. With the removal of the scaffolding and the arrival of mid July my fear receded and switched to how to manage the flow of customers now we finally appeared to be on the map.

View Larger Map

From July on it was back to the job of delivering the very best experience we could every time. Now we don't always get it right, but our motto is to deliver you the little things done right and we will always strive to do this.

I now sit at a happy equilibrium, fueled by a little fear, enjoying the experience and confident that my business is healthy and loved by our customers.

What was the High the Low and the Average?

The High has been the excitement at every milestone. There is an outrageous physical surge of pleasure that I have never experienced as frequently as this year. I can not single out one occasion and the trigger can vary. Off the top of my head; when I realise that I am an employer providing 4 full time and 6 part time jobs I feel it. When we were on The Great British Bake Off on BBC2 in October I felt it. When we recieve a 5* Trip Advisor review I feel it. When a customer says that was the best coffee they have had in Cardiff I feel it. When we were awarded our 5* Food Hygiene Award I felt it (go and look who has a 0,1 or 2 shocking!). The highs bring with them an overwhelming sense of peace which lasts and acts as a great reference for when the lows arrive.

I live for the lows, it is in my nature. If you receive 100 compliments and 1 person gives the gift of complaint it is the complaint that will echo around in my skull for the remaining waking hours. Remember the highs and learn from the lows. Move on. There is a very personal low I experienced in 2012 which crept up on me slowly and only came into sharp relief at Christmas. My partner and I have given up a lot to live this reality, financially and emotionally. We miss our friends and family especially those living further away. If any low exists it is the low of missing the closeness with the ones you love due to distance and time.

The Average was my secret fear for this project all along. I never voiced it prior, but I thought what happens if I get my dream and I feel the same? No day is the same. Yes there are average days, but those days are varied and challenging in their own little way. As I am VERY fond of telling my staff, "there is always something to do, especially cleaning".

What's next?
This final question only gets a brief answer here. I want to tease you. I enjoy teasing you. I have teased around 100,000 of you since starting this blog a few years ago.

I have news, but I cannot share it right now...

It is BIG exciting Tea Room news that will make you get up and dance!

For now though if you want any clues there are only two ways to get them.

Firstly come into Pettigrew Tea Rooms and ask me

Secondly watch this space

@want2bakefree

+Pettigrew Tea Rooms - I Want to Bake Free 

Christmas Afternoon Tea Party - Cardiff

BOOK NOW PEOPLE! The menu is finally here so book up quickly. Pettigrew Tea Rooms Menu - Christmas 2012

"BAKE FREE BROTHER!"

I wanted to set up a tea room and the good news is that is exactly what I have done.



You may have spotted a small gap in my blog story telling with my last post being published on Tuesday 27th March 2012. That post heralded the news that following two years of planning, 44 blog posts and around 5500 tweets my dream of running a tea room was finally realised.

My abrupt silence was a deliberate and direct reflection of how all consuming setting up a business is. I will try to write about the experience now that I have some perspective. At various points over the past weeks of radio silence I have toyed with writing to you to explain, narrate and share my thoughts, feelings and adventures. My instincts told me to leave it, to experience it, so that I remember it and then share to it and so here we are.

You may have been part of the experience in real time, visiting the tea rooms in person. For that I can only thank you all. There has been no greater pleasure than meeting someone who connected to my story online and then made the effort to come in and say hello. Would we ever have met otherwise?

Here are some facts...
Since opening the doors in late March we have served over 15kg of Pettigrew Breakfast Tea, 800 toasted tea cakes, over 40 Victoria Sandwiches, 500 sandwiches, 4500 shots of fine Welsh roasted coffee, nearly 3000 scones and made countless new friends many of which I am delighted to say have become regulars!

Today my catch up will bring you how we went about taking on the West Lodge and translating all that planning into a living operating commercial tea room; to wake from my dream so to speak.

I need you to know that it has been incredibly tough but indescribably rewarding.

The 'Tea Room' in storage in my house

Decision Making

I had confirmation that I was the preferred operator for the tea room at West Lodge in late January this year and from that time on it was a race against the clock to turn all my procrastinating into a brilliant business that I was visualising.

One of the mutually agreed terms of my tenancy was to ensure that the tea rooms were open in time for the RHS Flower Show Cardiff on the weekend of Friday the 20th April. RHS attracts around 22,000 visitors to Bute Park each year and if anything would be a test for the tea rooms, then this would be it. From all of my research and speaking to other small business start ups, giving yourself time to test out your operation is key.

The builders gave us a get in date of the 9th March with a full handover of the building on Tuesday 20th March. With the RHS weekend less than four weeks from the handover date, I knew that the fit out would have to be quick and so I picked the date of Friday 30th March as our grand opening with a soft opening from the Monday before.

Her are some pictures which speak for themselves really, enjoy!

Fit Out Schedule
Monday 9th March - Kitchen Build

Friday 13th March - Still Room Build

Tuesday 19th March - Tea Room Fit Out

Saturday 24th March - Tea Room Dressing

Tuesday 27th March - Staff Induction and Soft Opening

Friday 30th March - GRAND OPENING

On the morning of Friday 30th March 2012, I was busy setting out the outside seating on our beautiful terrace and a random runner came past and shouted "Bake Free Brother!".

This was one of the most moving things during the opening. I still don't know who that was but thank you, it was brilliant. The good news is, I feel free... I am free.

Come in soon and say hello.

More photos and story to follow soon.

David & team