THE MADAGASCAN GIN PALACE

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2008-01-07T14:41:00.000-08:00

2007 ended in style as we celebrated the New Year along with 70 guests enjoying a 5 course dinner, disco, quiz, games and Bingo! I feel a good time was had by all and definitely put it in the top 3 of New Years Eves held at The Gin Palace.

The disco was provided by my good friend Shakes of Shake Disco and as always, he had the whole place on their feet.

2007 was a very good year for the business and as we start 2008 I'm confident we shall continue to improve what we offer and make our fourteenth year, the best one yet!

I would like to wish those of you kind enough to read my Blog a very happy new year and look forward to seeing you soon

Richard

TIS' DONE!

2007-12-22T14:50:00.000-08:00

Well it's 11pm Saturday 22nd and all the Christmas parties are done!

Over two and half thousand revellers have passed through our doors since the 1st of the month and I must say it's been the most organised and easy Christmas the Gin Palace has ever experienced. Neil, Tony and Sammy have done a sterling job in the kitchen and the standard of the food never faltered even when we were doing parties of 80.

The buffet for the Newbury Weekly News yesterday looked fantastic and was well received (See photo above) by the 91 employees who almost drank us dry...Thank you!

Lee, Stella and all the girls gave their all ensuring everybody was well looked after and DELILAH was sung night after night as it has become a tradition here at Christmas.

All in all I am delighted with the way everything went and would just like to take this opportunity to wish those of you bored enough to read my blog, a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

Hope to see you all in the new year

Richard

SORRY!

2007-11-26T15:20:00.000-08:00

My apologies for not blogging for the past month, but we have been really busy, experiencing the best November since 1998!

December is now virtually full, except for maybe a couple of spaces on the 3rd and the 4th!
last count was 2476 people booked in over 19 days, so I doubt I'll be blogging again now until the new year!

New Year's Eve this year see the return of Shakes Soundz Disco, as well as a 4 course gourmet dinner, bingo, a quiz and lots of party games, I intend to make it the biggest and the best one yet!

Tickets are still available at only £55.00 each. For more info, either email me or ring the restaurant on 01635 35491 where someone will gladly help you.

Well may I take this opportunity to wish you a very merry Christmas and a happy, healthy, prosperous new year!

Richard

SHAKE BABY SHAKE!

2007-10-20T13:56:00.000-07:00

Shake Sounds held their 3rd annual Soul Night at The Madagascan Gin Palace last Saturday with 78 revellers enjoying a 2 course dinner followed by dancing through to the wee small hours.

It's always been a great night and Shake Sounds owner, Shakey and I have decided to try and make it a twice yearly event, hopefully with the next one being in the spring.

Check Shakey out on his web site

Christmas is now almost full, with just a few available dates left. Tonight was the Rugby World Cup final and I anticipated being very quiet, I was wrong, we had a hen night for 36, good luck next week Ali! A 30th Birthday party of 28 guests 'Happy Birthday Steve'. Another table full of ladies celebrating another birthday, 'Happy Birthday Nikki'. And a table of four lovely ladies celebrating the birthdays of Anna and Claire, so all in all a great night.

I'm off home now to watch the rugby highlights!

PACMAN!

2007-10-10T12:43:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I haven't blogged for a while but we have been so busy!

Fully booked nearly every night, cooking three nights and week and catching up with paper work during the day, blogging fell down my list of priorities.

All I'm going to say is try our new Christmas Pacman game, great fun thanks to Darin and all at Bcl-Nu media

I will be back soon, promise!

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!

2007-09-08T15:10:00.000-07:00

This week has been mad!

We have catered for 535 people and the place has been jammed packed every night as well as Wednesday and Friday lunchtime. Everyone here, including myself has worked really hard and every service was faultless, well done to you all!

A special thank you goes to Lucimar our Kitchen porter, he has the lovely job of washing all the dishes and cleaning down the kitchen at the end of the night, he never complains, just gets on and does it, well done Luci, thank you! (He refused to pose for the camera, but you can see him in action above!)

Thursday sees the return of my assistant Lee from his fortnight in Majorca, so hopefully he'll be nicely rested and ready to throw himself in to his work. Somehow I feel he will be anything but rested!

Good program to watch on telly at the moment is The Restaurant on BBC2 Wednesdays and Thursdays at 8pm. Nine couples have to open and run their own restaurants under the guidance of Raymond Blanc with the eventual winners getting to run their own restaurant in partnership with Raymond. It's nothing new as far as reality tv goes, but it does give you a good insight in to what's involved in running a restaurant.

It's now nearly midnight and we still have over 30 people in, so I'd better get back on the floor and do what I do!

Have a great weekend

CHRISTMAS IS COMING!

2007-09-04T14:32:00.000-07:00

Christmas day is exactly 16 weeks today!

So far we have over 500 people already booked for the month of December, but we still need at least another 1000 to keep up with previous years.

The past two weeks have been really busy and so far this week we have been full Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday are fully booked and Friday is on it's way.

Please check out the new question in the competition page of our web site, answer the question correctly and you will win a BUY ONE MAIN COURSE, GET ONE FREE voucher, what have you got to lose?!

Have a great week!

COOL KID'S MENU HAS ARIVED!

2007-08-16T15:44:00.000-07:00

As promised our new 'Junior Menu' is ready for our little customers, at £4.95 including ice cream and a lolly, children can now enjoy such treats as Fishcakes and chips, Mediterranean chicken with mash and fresh vegetables or even a childs size portion of our famous Indonesian chicken curry.

I have tried to create a menu that is diferent from the normal pizza and chicken nuggets and offer our younger customers a choice that they will aprove of, as well as their parents!

On the back of the menu they will find puzzles and word searches and a drawing competition where the best entry each month will receive an MGP Goody Bag!

The best part however, is, that most children eat with us early evening so if mum and dad bring them in for our Early Bird Offer they get to eat for half price too! I make that about £2.48, bargain!

Tomorrow our new Lunchtime Ciabatta, Wraps and Salads Menu goes live, running along side the balckboard menu, this gives those customers with smaller appetites or not much time, to grab something lighter and quicker. There's a choice of nine delicious dishes which you can have either in a warmed ciabatta, a flour wrap or tossed in our house herb salad with the most expensive dish costing £6.95, so not only light and quick but cheap too!

Our Ladies Lunch on Fridays are getting busier each week and I'm hoping it won't be too long before it mirrors the success of Ladies Night on Mondays.

Well that's it for tonight, I'm in the kitchen again at the weekend as Neil the head chef has the weekend off, only 40 booked tomorrow so far, but hopefully that will pick up.

Saturday currently has 99 booked! so all I can say to that is.....'HELP!'

Enjoy the weekend, hope the sun shines!

RAIN, RAIN GO AWAY!

2007-07-24T03:06:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to go on about how rubbish the weather has been, all I will say is, yes, we got flooded!

On Friday, just as lunchtime service was about to commence, the water came pouring in through the wall downstairs. With in minutes the bar was flooded and the floor under the blackboards began to soak up the pouring water.

Quickly running round to The Dolphin car park, which runs adjacent to the said wall, with the help of the staff there we managed to lower a drain away pipe which had been, for some unexplained reason, been moved. The water level quickly lowered and the problem was solved. All that was left to do was mop!

Needless to say we closed for lunch, but did re-open at 5.30 for business as normal, although we did have to close off one small section due to a very soggy carpet!

We lost a lot of early bookings that night due to the bedlam on the roads and railways, however we picked up later on and were full (Except for the soggy section!).

Saturday night was a different story! 93 covers, Head chef on holiday, weekend chef didn't turn up! So it was down to me and Tony to feed what seemed like, the 5000!

We got through what was probably the worst service I have ever experienced, Tony coped remarkably well and sent his food out quickly and precisely, I on the other hand was swamped with orders for starters, large starters and sweets and in no time at all became one of those stressed, swearing, bad tempered chefs, who think that by shouting and screaming it will all go away.......it didn't!

Fortunately, no one really suffered and only a couple of free bottles of wine were given to apologise for having to wait a little longer than we would normally like.

Well I'm glad it's a new week, the sun is shining, Chef is back on Thursday and new commis chef Tom has joined us. We we're full last night and the rest of the week is looking good.

I'm now going to put on my chef's jacket and head back in to the kitchen, where I shall be calm, witty and fun to work with, as long as it doesn't get too busy!!

The Madagascan Gin Palace Web site

COOL KID'S MENU COMING SOON!

2007-07-12T11:58:00.000-07:00

The new web site is running smoothly and seems to be attracting a lot of people.
So far 11 people have won a free bottle of wine on the competition page Look out for a new question coming soon.

The past couple of weeks have been really busy and this week looks like being the busiest one for over a year, helped by doing 90 covers last night (Wednesday!) Let's hope the weekend stays true to form!

New dishes are starting to creep on to the menu with Mediterranean Catfish, (wrapped in Parma ham, served with honey roast sweet potatoes, asparagus and a saffron cream) making it's debut on Saturday and so far has received great praise. Well done Neil, let's have some more please!

Tonight, we are expecting a group booking for 40 people at 9.30, so it's going to be a late one, but hopefully they'll eat and drink well!

For those of you with children, I am in the process of building a new Children's menu which will incorporate puzzles and games to keep them occupied at the table. Watch this space for more developments!

Have a great weekend!

The Madagascan Jazz Time Quartet!

2007-07-05T15:25:00.000-07:00

These figures belonged to my father, who was about to sell them on ebay, when I said, 'No!, they'd look great in the restaurant' and personally speaking, I think they do, Thanks pops!

I decided to put them up high to avoid them being 'borrowed' by some jovial customer on his way out, a fate that happened to my African elephant a couple of years ago. However after the Newbury weekly news received a ransom note made from cut out letters, demanding one million pounds or the elephant gets it! It was returned.

The upside of this tale is the Newbury weekly news followed the story, from the theft and the ransom note, to the return, front page three weeks running!

A good friend of mine and former reporter for the previously mentioned paper, runs a PR company Morgan PR, (http://www.morganpr.co.uk/) and I noticed on his blog http://www.morganpr.blogspot.com/ that he has introduced a mutual friend and blogger, Graham Chappel of Gardens4u , http://www.garden4you.blogspot.com/ to the art of video blogging!

Nigel and his wife are dinning with us on Saturday and I intend to ply him with wine and pick his brains as to how it's done, as I think it's time my blog had video!

So far, this week has been very busy, 81 covers this evening, with several late tables joining us post races. New head chef Neil and second chef Tony are both doing a remarkable job in bringing a fresh approach to service and we have all sat down to discuss what new dishes we are going to grace the menu with, so, watch this space!

Tomorrow is my Mother's 70th birthday and we are having a little family bash, here in the restaurant, just six of us and as her only son it's my duty to pick up the tab, wonder if they'll give me discount?!

Have a great weekend, hopefully the sun will shine, you never know, it is JULY after all!

http://www.themadginpalace.com/

2007-06-28T14:38:00.000-07:00

All the black boards are now written, well done Lee!

So far we have a good response from our customers who seem to like what we have done.

John the Chef works his last shift tomorrow lunchtime and Neil will take over in the evening.Neil has some interesting menu ideas and I'm looking forward to seeing them on the plate.

Tonight has been really busy, 87 people all of whom seem to be happy!

I have just placed the first competition on the web site, simply email me the correct answer and I shall send you a voucher for a free bottle of house wine to be redeemed the next time you visit,

or if you prefer, pass it on to a friend.

Go to http://www.themadginpalace.com/, and click on competition!

I hope to do a different competition with different prizes every couple of weeks, so keep checking!

I'm off now for the whole weekend (Doesn't happen very often!) I hope the sun shines and you have a great weekend.

I almost forgot our Christmas Party Menu is now available!

Go to www.themadginpalace.com, and click on menus

Tonight's the night!

2007-06-14T06:24:00.000-07:00

As of 11am today our new web site went live, www.themadginpalace.com/

Thanks Darin, Martin and all the guys involved at BCL Numedia. We are still waiting for the background music which should be on by the weekend, but it looks great!

Tonight sees the launch of our new blackboard menu which has some great dishes on such as Yellow fin tuna fish cakes with a lemon grass and ginger mayo and Ono Hawaiian baby back ribs cooked in Maple syrup, soy sauce and garlic, yum!

As I mentioned in an earlier post my assistant Lee has been pain stakingly writing the boards, but has now finished the 34 boards downstairs, Well done Lee!

The upstairs boards are still to be written and Lee has promised me they'll be completed by this time next week, so those diners eating upstairs will still have the card menus for the time being.

I'm away for a few days as of tomorrow, I'm taking my 10 year old son to Madrid. I'm leaving the joint in the capable hands of Lee, Stella and Charlotte who I know will serve you well!

Adios Amigos!

The Writing's Back On The Wall!

2007-06-04T11:43:00.000-07:00

The downstairs boards are nearly finished, just waiting for Chef to give me the last couple of dishes. My assistant Lee has been painstakingly writing them and I've noticed him getting a little stressed out if he spells something wrong or it won't fit. (If a mistake is made, the board has to be re-painted and left to dry, before it can be re-written!)

Last week was a little quiet, we closed for the Bank Holiday and the warm weekend didn't help trade. Tonight however is fully booked with our lovely ladies enjoying their half price food!

The new web site is almost ready to go live and I'm really pleased with it, well done to the guys at BCL NuMedia. http://www.bcl-numedia.com/

Other than that, not much else to report so I'll leave it there.

Richard

Farewell to Chef!

2007-05-25T13:51:00.000-07:00

It's been really busy this week, almost full every night and full tomorrow, which is great because the Vat is due next week!

Work began today on putting the blackboards back up. We have decided on the menu and now have to fix the boards upstairs most of which will involve someone (not me!) precariously balanced on a ladder and then we have to write them all out, 68 in total so it's going to take some time but I think it will look great when it's finished.

John my head chef of 4 years informed me this week that he and his partner have decided to move to Wales to be close to family and for the opportunity to buy a house, 3 bed detached for £135,000! We wish him luck and thank him for all his effort and wacky ideas over the past 4 years. Neil, the second chef has been promoted and will take over the reigns when John goes.

This means you will probably see more of me in the kitchen for a while, sorry!

Well it's Bank Holiday weekend and I have a couple of days off!

Enjoy yours

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2007-05-17T13:00:00.001-07:00

Well, as you can see it's been ages since I blogged, but I'm back and raring to go!

My new website is currently being built which I am very excited about as I will be able to update it myself on a regular basis and of course it will incorporate the blog!

I have decided to fill you in on events at The Gin Palace on a weekly basis and have written a big notice on my office wall saying 'Don't forget blog!'

After serious consideration, I have decided to re-introduce the blackboard menus and we are busy designing a new menu for their return, as well as bringing on a new summer lunchtime menu soon.

I think it would be true to say, I have taken my eye off the ball this year, but I have listened to peoples' comments and I now intend to make The Madagascan Gin Palace rock again!

So watch this space!

2006-12-08T04:07:00.000-08:00

Wow, Friday already and I have hardly posted anything this week.

Needless to say we have been very busy with Christmas parties and so far, so good!

Last night we had a very lively crowd form Aramark (Thanks Annette!), a couple of parties from Vodafone and a group of ladies saying farfewell to a friend who's shortly moving to Dubai,

'Good luck Camilla!'

With a full house tonight and tomorrow, it will probably be next week before I post again.

Have a good weekend and if you are out revelling, have fun and be safe

www.themadginpalace.com

MGP or LDP?

2006-12-05T05:04:00.000-08:00

Friday saw the restaurant taken over by the local memebers of the Liberal Demorcrats.

70 people enjoyed a 3 course dinner and special guests were ex-MP David Rendell, Chris Huhne MP, Ian Goose leader of Newbury town council and Gillian Durrant the Lady Mayoress of Newbury (All pictured above with myself in the middle!)
It was an intersting evening with Mr. Rendell and Mr. Huhne delivering speaches, followed by a 'Question Time' style debate.

Saturday was full of Christmas parties and I'm pleased to say everything went smoothly and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

Monday was also full of revellers and CONGRATULATIONS to Miss Skewes of Falkland Primary School for winning the last Blog Voucher even if under somewhat dubious circumstances!

www.themadginpalace.com

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

2006-12-01T06:37:00.000-08:00

Lee Brown (Pictured) is my Trainee manager, he has worked for me for nearly 2 years on a part-time basis, in the evenings after school. In September he told me he wanted to learn the ropes, because one day he wants to run his own restaurant, bar and night club.

He now works full-time and goes to college one day a week to learn supervisory skills and team leading.

The main reason for mentioning him though, is, today he is 18! Never have I seen a young man so pleased to reach this milestone!

He has booked the next 4 days off to celebrate and then returns, to what will probably be the hardest month he has had to work in his life. With nearly 2400 people booked over the next 21 days, there will be little time to sleep and eat, but if he's serious about a career in this business, he'll love every minute of it!

Happy Birthday Lee x

ALL BUT ONE VOUCHER CLAIMED!

2006-11-29T16:32:00.000-08:00

So far 9 of the 10 vouchers have been given away, I'm impressed!

On Monday the lucky winners were, a nice lady called Sarah, in with a group of Mums!

David Meyer from an Electronics company up north somewhere, and another lady who wished to remain anonymous!

Tuesday night saw 4 gentlemen from the same group come up to me individually to mention the blog offer, I felt I was being conned but after asking a couple of trick questions, it seems they had all read the blog, so fair's fair. Well done guys, especially Jason!

And tonight, the lovely Lucy Finch, Tourism manager for West Berkshire Council took the 9th voucher.

That leaves one voucher left, where are you Charlie Bucket!

This morning we started putting up our Christmas decorations as our first Christmas party is tomorrow night, then it's full steam ahead until the 23rd.

It's nearly 1am and I really should go home, it's a strange life us catering folk lead!

Night!

2006-11-27T02:49:00.000-08:00

Saturday night, was a great success, all of the 86 customers, most of whom had come from the races, were absolutely brilliant and made the place buzz. Due to the early start the restaurant was empty and set up for today by 11pm which is very unusual, but welcomed by the tired staff.

This week sees the start of our Christmas parties with the first booking on Thursday and then from that day on it busy, busy, busy up to Saturday the 23rd when we close down for the Christmas Break.

If you are part of a works do or a Christmas party and you find me and mention the 'Blog Christmas Drink offer' I'll buy you a drink of your choice! (Offer only open to people who have read this blog!)

It's Monday and tonight is Ladies Night, where ladies eat for half price, so I better go and make sure everything is ready for there arrival.

Have a great day

And they're off!

2006-11-24T14:03:00.000-08:00

After a fairly busy Thursday, I am pleased to say that tonight we have been fully booked and had to turn away several disappointed customers.

Tomorrow is The Henessey Gold Cup at Newbury races, the biggest meeting there of the year.

The town is always bustling on Gold Cup day and we have 93 people booked, some of which I am sure will come straight from the races and probably be a little worse for wear when they arrive. It could be a great night, it could be a disaster, I'll let you know!

Congratulations to the lovely Kerry Cooper for mentioning the 'Blog voucher offer' when she dined on Wednesday, that's two down and eight to go. If you are reading for the first time, if you mention 'The Blog voucher offer' next time you visit, you could receive a £25.00 MPG voucher to spend on your next visit.

Have a great weekend and rememeber a month today is Christmas Eve!

www.themadginpalace.com

2006-11-21T15:00:00.000-08:00

Tonight we were graced with members of Newbury's Round Table, a last minute booking for 10, took the total for the night to 46, which at this time of year is great for a Tuesday.

I spent most of the night organising the Christmas bookings, so far we have 2221 people booked over the 20 days we are trading up to Christmas, but don't panic we still have some spaces left!

Gave away the first gift voucher tonight (see yesterdays post for details)to a lady fromTowers Perin, well done Eilidh.

Looks like the Round Tablers are settled in for the night so I'm going to grab a coffee and fold some napkins, it's great being the boss!

Please feel free to add your coments on this blog, they are always welcome.

www.themadginpalace.com

Monday Nights are Ladies Nights!

2006-11-20T14:36:00.000-08:00

Yes! although gentlemen are more than welcome, Ladies eat for half price at The Gin Palace every Monday night.

Tonight we catered for 81 people, 77 ladies and 4 gentlemen!

We have been doing this promotion for eleven and a half years and it's just as popular now, as it's ever been.....Thank you ladies x!

A good friend of mine wrote some very nice words about the restaurant and me, on his blog today, if you wish you can read them at http://morganpr.blogspot.com

Don't forget my promise of a £25.00 Madagascan Gin Palace voucher to the first 10 people to mention this blog, when paying your bill next time you visit (Could make a nice Christmas present for someone!)

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

www.themadginpalace.com

Welcome

2006-11-18T14:03:00.000-08:00

Hi and welcome to The Madagascan Gin Palace Blog.

It's Saturday night and I'm pleased to say that we were fully booked and everything went smoothly. Tonight's best seller was the 'Pan fried ostrich' with 22 out of 86 customers choosing it.

With only 10 trading days left for us, until the Christmas party seasons begins, next week will be dedicated to getting organised, stocking up, buying extra plates, cups, glasses etc and putting up the decorations!

To see our Christmas party menu go to http://www.themadginpalace.com/

I have decided to give away a £25.00 Madagascan Gin Palace Gift Voucher,

to the first 10 customers who mention the 'Blog Gift Voucher Offer'

to a staff member when asking for the bill.

This voucher may be given away or used on your next visit.

Well it's time to put the chairs on the tables, another week over!

Look forward to greeting you soon

Richard