HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!