TGt Meets…Shaftesbury Business Awards - David Griffin-Shepherd

Shaftesbury Business Awards celebrate the businesses of the town of Shaftesbury. In this series of TGt Meets you can meet the winners.

Congratulations on your Shaftesbury Business Awards win. Which category were you recognised in?

Best Restaurant

What does it mean to your business to have won an award at the Shaftesbury Business Awards this year?

After 34 years in the same ownership here in Shaftesbury This is a very cherished award to receive in the twilight years for our career

What is the history and background of your business?

We (the 3 of us) Marc, Mary my wife, Myself along with a young daughter, started the business here back in the very early 1990’s and everyone we spoke to said we would never survive, unless we served well done Roast beef & chips! How wrong they were, We found a very Loyal following & people wanting more than just Chips, We found local Producers of quality produce & prepared & cooked the produce fresh to order, This gained us much recognition both locally & Nationally, (At 1 point we were voted in the top 100 restaurants in the UK. To this day we carry this same ethos Fresh Local produce prepared & cooked with love & Care.

How has being located in Shaftesbury influenced the growth and development of your business?

Location is Key to many Restaurants & We are no exception we researched the local area & identified Shaftesbury as an ideal centre for our target market & this has proved to be the case although it did take us some time to convince the locals.

Can you share a challenge your business has faced and how you overcame it?

The biggest challenge especially in the early years was getting people to understand what we were about, Life was difficult in the first 5 years, So we diversified & started to make Cakes & Pies for a local coffee shop on the famous Gold Hill keeping to our philosophy of everything fresh & local, So as people would get a better understanding of what we we trying to do & peoples interest in food gained more prominence, they came to us for meals out.

How does your business contributed to the local community in Shaftesbury?

We provide employment to many over the years & now their children seek employment with us, and we support the local producers & shops which in turn all helps the local economy.

What role do you believe local recognition, such as the Shaftesbury Business Awards, plays in helping small businesses thrive in Dorset?

I think recognising the value of the small business is such an important part of our social fabric, from small acorns grow big tress & if we do not cherish the acorns there will be no trees. Awards of this sort give a voice to the otherwise unsung heroes of our small business community, which especially in these times are finding life Tougher than ever whatever sector they are in. So from us 3 a very big thank you for this recognition.

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