The hordes of socially-distanced queues snaking around outside the big supermarkets is a troubling sight, but there are many (much better) alternatives. Our Cotswold food and drink businesses have shown agility in adapting to the current situation and are finding new ways to supply us with the quality produce we’ve come to expect... and right now they need our support more than ever
The coronavirus pandemic continues to impact on Cotswold food and drink businesses, and many of them are now offering takeaway and delivery menus. We’ve gathered some great options to support local businesses through this challenging time for the hospitality sector.
The Old Butchers in Stow-on-the-Wold may be closed for the time being but owners Pete and Louise Robinson are offering a takeaway menu three days a week, Thursday to Saturday. Typical food-to-go includes buttermilk-fried chicken sandwich and chips, half a Cornish lobster, mayonnaise and house potato salad and pannacotta with marinated strawberries. You can order by emailing louise@theoldbutchers.com or messaging them on 07564 178017. Pre-orders only and the cut-off is 3pm on the day of collection.
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Fairford-based New Wave Seafood has supplied sustainable fresh fish, seafood and fine foods to restaurants for over 30 years. Since the pandemic, it has started to offer a home delivery service to anybody living in the Cotswolds. Order before 12 noon and delivery will usually be next day. Free deliveries for orders over £20 and you get 5% off if you spend more than £100.
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Arkell’s Brewery has created a ‘Pub in a Box’ to help lockdown drinkers missing their local boozers and favourite tipples. Named The Isolation Arms, the box contains a mini cask of Arkell’s ‘Freshest Beer in the Cellar’, two Edinburgh gin and tonic cans or mini bottles of red or white wine, two pub pint glasses, five bags of assorted bar snacks including crisps and pork scratchings, a deck of playing cards, a general knowledge pub quiz, a pen and two traditional beer mats. There is even an added bonus of a bottle of hand sanitiser made from Arkell’s lager in partnership with Wood Bros Distillery. Arkell’s is also delivering beer to homes local to the brewery and many of its pubs are offering takeaway meals, beer and, in some cases, emergency supplies.
The Isolation Arms box is £40 and can be ordered via the website or you can call the brewery’s Grape and Grain shop on 01793 833962.
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The Calcot Hotel & Spa has launched a complimentary chef-made meal delivery service to people in self-isolation. The hotel near Tetbury is supplying two-course meals to vulnerable groups, staffed by furloughed Calcot employees and council volunteers. The Calcot team has been working with the councils of Tetbury, Malmesbury, Nailsworth and Sherston to identify those most in need, in terms of lacking a home support network, to ensure they get chef-made nutritional meals such as fish pie and beef stew delivered to their doors, completely free of charge, three days a week. Deliveries are every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and the Calcot kitchen team is producing around 200 meals a day. Calcot Hotel has worked closely with food suppliers New Wave Seafood, Walter Rose & Son, Cam Catering, Bramleys of Cirencester and Total Produce, as well as Tetbury’s Car Care, which has donated money towards fuel costs.
Any other local businesses or chefs wishing to support this initiative should email calcot.c19meals@calcot.co.
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Volunteers from the Witney Land Army have set up a new Witney Larder to deliver weekly food parcels of basic food provisions to people during the pandemic. The initiative is aimed at people unable to get food themselves through local support, or those experiencing financial hardship. Deliveries are on Wednesdays and include essentials such as rice, pasta, potatoes, carrots, onions, cereal and tinned goods. Citizens Advice West Oxfordshire are taking the referrals, so if you know someone who needs help, email advice@citizensadvicewestoxon.org.uk
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Cheltenham’s Maison Chaplais in Tivoli is open to provide essentials such as eggs, flour, yeast and pasta, but also a range of takeaway meals including cottage pie, fish pie, lasagne and braised steak pie. There are also frozen pasties and pies, handmade sausage rolls and scones. Maison Chaplais delivers free if orders are over £30.
Call 01242 570222.
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Alice Robertson, who runs a cookery school in Beckford near Tewkesbury, is now running free virtual ‘Bake Along’ sessions. The lessons are suitable for all ages and abilities and are streamed every Tuesday at 11am through Alice’s Facebook and Instagram channels. Alice publishes the required ingredients five days before the session, with a list of substitutes for those who can’t get to the shops. So far, sessions have included soda bread, pizzas, and a curry with naan breads.
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The Royal Agricultural University has joined the Feeding the 5,000 project to help provide homecooked, healthy meals to those in need during the coronavirus crisis. The Feeding the 5,000 project is led by The Long Table, a community-based kitchen and restaurant in Brimscombe, and supported by the Diocese of Gloucester. The meals, which include sausage casserole and veggie pesto pasta, are packaged, labelled (including allergens) and frozen ready for distribution to the Cirencester community.
Those wishing to place meal orders with The Long Table should email cotswold@thelongtableonline.com or call 01285 323851.
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Dunkertons is offering a grocery home delivery service for people living within 10 driving miles of its cider shop at Dowdeswell Park. Orders will be delivered within three working days and can be placed via the website.
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Daylesford has launched its new British Vegetable Boxes of seasonal produce delivered directly from the farm. Contents vary each week according to what is being harvested and each box contains six items. The small organic veg boxes cost £15 and are dispatched from the farm between Tuesday and Friday. Order online.
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The Stump at Foss Cross has opened a drive-through chicken shop. The pub located between Northleach and Cirencester is serving takeaway free-range rotisserie chicken, which can be pre-ordered. A quarter of a chicken served with rosemary salted chips, slaw and chipotle mayo costs £10. The Stump is also serving homemade pizzas.
To pre-order rotisserie chicken call 01285 720288 between 11am and 8.30pm, Wed-Sun.
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Cirencester’s MBB Brasserie and deli has become a ‘pick-up and go’ supermarket during the coronavirus crisis. Customers can call the restaurant number to order essential groceries or ready meals prepared by chefs of both the MBB brasserie and the neighbouring Kings Head Hotel. The orders are delivered straight to the customers’ car at the front or back of The Corn Hall. MBB is also offering NHS staff free delivery as well as 20% off products in accordance with the Blue Light Card initiative. To place an order, email: info@mbbbrasserie.co.uk or phone 01285 641818.
