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EAT LIKE A LOCAL.
Tunbridge Wells, Kent, United Kingdom
Aim
EAT LIKE A LOCAL will be a trusted, up-to-date and free website, making it easy to find and choose local independent restaurants.
Excuse me, waiter……..
Bad restaurant experiences can ruin a date, family get-togethers, special occasions and in the worst scenarios might even leave you clenching. But you looked up the star rating and you believed those glowing reviews.
How to avoid a wasted journey, wasting money and feeling like you’ve let everyone down? What if, wherever you were, you could access that restaurant knowledge only locals have?
EAT LIKE A LOCAL will be a trusted and up-to-date website, making it easy to find and choose those independent gems.
We will combine insider knowledge from local foodies and updates from restaurants to tell you what's on, what's new and what's good.
Why we want to do this
Our hometown of Tunbridge Wells is blessed with a variety of fantastic independent restaurants, from idyllic country gastropubs to family-run bistros. However you wouldn’t know this if you didn’t live here. TwitAdvisor and suchlike do little to remedy this and our high street, like many others, is increasingly dominated by the chains. We feel that our local food scene deserves more.
We’re old school friends now back in our hometown and found deciding where to eat for a long overdue catch-up, more difficult than we’d anticipated. Using review platforms, we were struck by the level of inaccuracy and lack of information.
Since then, we’ve met with over fifty restaurateurs and numerous local diners. We found that restaurants want to be able to easily curate and update their content in one place and diners want a trusted and simplified way to make decisions on where to eat.
Put simply, if you live in the area, you want to know what's new and what's on. If you are visiting somewhere, you want to know what's a good local dining experience.
You don't get that from any sites out there.
So EAT LIKE A LOCAL became our mission…..but we need your help to get started.
What we’ll do
- Partner with a digital agency to create and design a prototype website
- Work with 60 restaurants to write content, showcasing their establishments
- Report what’s on and what’s new – e.g new openings, lunchtime offers, trivia nights, wine tastings, bands, special occasions such as Christmas and Mothers’ Day
- Professional 360 videos of restaurant interiors and exteriors
- Video interviews and updates with chefs and owners
- Create and circulate a regular EAT LIKE A LOCAL newsletter, including new openings, special offers and events
We endeavour to have this done by Spring 2022 and we will keep you updated along the way.
We need your backing
We’ve worked out what our absolute minimum is to create a first version of our site.
As well as helping us out, part of your kind contribution will go to local foodbank charity, Nourish.
REST ASSURED – we are not a review site, we’re a what’s on site. Your contributions will NOT go towards the founders eating out at restaurants every night!
We feel that every town deserves this kind of representation and our hometown of Tunbridge Wells is only the beginning. Please spread the word far and wide so that locals and tourists everywhere can experience the best local independent dining experience a town has to offer.
Final Thanks
There’s so much to be done and so much more we can do. If you can’t pledge, you can still help by subscribing here and sharing our campaign via social media.
Thanks for believing in us, caring about the face of your town and supporting your local restaurants. Your contribution is invaluable and we can’t thank you enough.
Speak soon and thanks again,
Ash & Loic
Your Rewards
We thought long and hard about something meaningful we could offer friends, family and backers from far and wide but alas delivery costs, even for small items, are prohibitive. So regrettably the bulk of our rewards are limited to people who live in and around Tunbridge Wells.
You might like to pledge and gift your reward to someone who lives in the catchment area and we can arrange delivery accordingly.
We’d like to take our idea further and create a new and truly trusted way for diners up and down the country to find the very best local gems. If you like our idea and wish to support us, regardless of a reward, we are eternally grateful and promise to get to you as soon as we can.
£15 'Signatures of Tunbridge Wells' recipe book
We have teamed up with some of the best chefs in Tunbridge Wells to publish mouth-watering recipes. Contributing restaurants include Rendez-vous, The Square Peg, Vittle & Swig, La Follia, The Beacon, The Lyle, Persian Lounge and Junahki. We’re also delighted to feature recipes from local celebrity chefs Michel Roux Jnr, Rosemary Shrager and Atul Kochhar.
You will receive a copy of the recipe book with your name included on the thank you page.
As with our hampers, a share of profits from this reward is going to Nourish foodbank.
£15 Secret Santa Hamper - Beer
£15 Secret Santa Hamper - Cider
£25 High Weald Hamper
£30 High Weald Hamper - Cider
£30 High Weald Hamper - Beer
£60 High Weald Hamper - Sparkling wine
£60 High Weald Hamper - Gin
£100 High Weald Hamper - Sparkling wine & Gin
£100 High Weald Hamper - Gin lovers
£150 Your recipe published in 'Signatures of Tunbridge Wells' Recipe Book
Do you yearn to share your signature recipe and be published alongside top chefs? Well here’s your unique chance. Fifteen talented home cooks have an exclusive opportunity to be included in this limited edition book. Have your recipe and photo published in 1000 books, distributed to Tunbridge Wells hotels and restaurants. You’ll also receive 5 free copies. So this is your chance to shine and show off as a published cook!
We have teamed up with some of the best chefs in Tunbridge Wells to publish mouth-watering recipes. Contributing restaurants include Rendez-vous, The Square Peg, Vittle & Swig, La Follia, The Beacon, The Lyle, Persian Lounge and Junahki. We’re also delighted to feature recipes from local celebrity chefs Michel Roux Jnr, Rosemary Shrager and Atul Kochhar.
As with our hampers, a share of profits from this reward is going to Nourish foodbank.
£200 High Weald Hamper - Luxury
£300 Have your say (and wine and nibbles) - Limit of 15
Join our invite-only EAT LIKE A LOCAL forums and have your say on the Tunbridge Wells independent restaurant scene. Enjoy wine and nibbles while chatting with the EAT LIKE A LOCAL founders and local food contributors, plus, get the opportunity to become a ‘secret diner’. Venue in central TW and evening timings to be confirmed.
£500 Private chef in the comfort of your own home - Limit of 10
Host a dinner party for six. A professional chef will cook a 3 course meal in your home.
Relax in the comfort of your own home and have a professional team cook up and serve a delicious three course dinner. Choose from a selection of modern British courses to suit all tastes (sample menus will be made available), pick a date and timings and we’ll do the rest, from serving drinks to cleaning up afterwards. Our chef has 37 years’ experience, including 19 as head chef at various high-end venues. He has cooked for royalty, Hollywood actors and Premiership stars, amongst others, so you’ll be in very capable hands. Service by EAT LIKE A LOCAL founders, Ash and Loic, so expect friendly and efficient service, if not quite to a professional standard!
See Tc & Cs below.
PRODUCT & NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
Please see nutritional and product information for all our hamper items by clicking on the relevant link below:
GOUPIE Salted Sticky Toffee Chocolate
BRISKET & BARREL BBQ Mango Sauce
TUNBRIDGE WELLS COFFEE ROASTERY
ROWDY & FANCY'S Organic Milk Chocolate Bar
BIDDENDEN Cox & Bramley Kentish Apple Juice
BALFOUR Reserve Brut Sparkling Wine
GENERAL TERMS & CONDITIONS
- Please note that this is an all or nothing campaign, which means that if we don’t meet our target, you will be fully refunded.
- The recipe book depends on inputs from multiple contributors and whilst we’ll set deadlines and aim to publish in time for Christmas 2021, we cannot make any guarantees. We are able to post the books to mainland UK addresses, but shipping overseas will sadly be too costly.
- We have multiple suppliers for our hampers and as we will place our orders at the busiest time of the year, we expect to pack and dispatch hampers towards the end of November and in time for Christmas. However, we cannot make guarantees as we will be in the hands of our suppliers. Due to delivery costs we are limited to free delivery within a 10 mile radius of Tunbridge Wells. If you’d like to receive one of our hampers, live in mainland UK but outside this radius, please contact us directly instead of pledging as we will need to add delivery costs. For specifics on allergens and contents of hamper products, please refer to manufacturer links in the descriptions. We aim to be as environmentally conscious as possible and endeavour to use recycled packaging material. The wooden wine cases depicted in the images are kindly donated by Secret Cellar, however there is limited supply and your hamper may therefore not be presented in one of these cases. Any alternative will be attractive and ethically sourced. When we confirm your order by email we will also give you the option of not having your hamper wrapped in our environmentally-friendly cellophane. Please note that the contents listed cannot be swapped for alternative products and bespoke hampers are not available.
- Dinner parties to be arranged at least 4 weeks in advance (subject to chef’s availability). Pick from three starters, three mains and three dessert options. Start of service to be agreed in advance from 6.30pm-8pm. Host to advise of allergies when confirming menu. Dinner can be Thursday to Saturday and from March 2022 to July 2022. Once dinner party is confirmed we will work closely with you to ensure you are across timings, menus, etc.
- Limit of 10 mile radius from Tunbridge Wells.
This project successfully funded on 1st November 2021