Time for a Yard Party
Times have been hard for the catering business with Covid lock downs, massive cost of living increases and, so far, a very wet summer. MARK EDWARDS talks about why Tommy’s closed and what has brought him back.
The closing of Tommy’s Pizzeria was a difficult time for me personally. My business partner had chosen to explore a different path as a chef, and that, combined with many other factors, not least the long-drawn effects of Covid, eventually led to Tommy’s as a business coming to an end. At the time it was difficult to bear.
We had always been extremely proud to be a part of the community around us, but it was only after hearing the many tales of how much Tommy’s was loved and missed, that we realised how deeply we’d embedded ourselves into that community. It was very humbling. But it also reignited my fire to complete unfinished business with St Leonards. In short, I wanted to be back on that corner.
So, some seven months later, here we are embarking on something completely new – and yet so familiar. The finer details all took a little longer to sort than we had hoped, and a pressing need to be open for the school holidays led to us starting our new venture with a summer ‘pop up’: Yard Party.
We’ve deliberately kept it pretty simple; we want to deliver something good and consistent right from the get-go and this route seemed the best way to do that with very little lead time. We plan to continue developing things over the summer as we lead into what will be our permanent project on the site. We’re looking at everything through fresh eyes and trying to create a more agile business that will allow us to bring together a culmination of all our experience and passions: cooking with fire using our fantastic wood oven but really starting to explore the endless possibilities of cooking that way using local ingredients and seasonal menus.
So, Yard Party is here for the summer with exciting food. We’ve got an outside street-food kitchen – think an absolute banging Prego, a Portuguese-style steak sandwich with bavette steak grilled over wood and coals. We have our signature Yard Chix chicken burger with our own house hot sauce, vegan buffalo cauliflower burger and fresh BBQ mackerel served up real simple alongside celeriac remoulade.
Inside on the bar this summer we’ve got frozen cocktails – pink grapefruit margherita and a watermelon & chilli daiquiri alongside draft Brooklyn beers and a short well-chosen wine list. We’ll be hosting DJs and live music both inside and outside throughout the summer. All in all, if the sun ever shows its face, we’re aiming to have a lot of fun. If it doesn’t, then we’ll just move the yard party inside!
We are so excited to be able to unfold our new identity as the summer draws on and to share it with the wonderful and supportive community around us. We hope you’ll all be as excited as we are.
For me personally, I could not be happier to be back on my corner, engaging in the day-to-day life of St Leonards. I hope to see you all down there.
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