Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Chicken Town agaaaaain
Chicken Town gets another puff piece, this time in the Guardian.
Nice idea, maybe, though I do want to visit the chicken farm to ask the birds what they think.
But it has no place in the frontage of Edwardian buildings on Tottenham Green.
How nice to get £300k in loans and grants from my Council Tax, and get all these advertorials (almost) to make sure its full of the right sort of people in the evenings to subsidise the slightly-less-fatloaded children's lunch menu.
I can think of other Old Fire Stations that become Arts Centres, or Community Centres, or nurseries. Fried-meat centres? Hmmm.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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It's not the only restaurant in the Borough of Haringey. It's not even the only restaurant that claims to sell healthy food. The over-the-top "reporting" suggests that it will change the way Haringey eats and improve public health.
One of CT's suppliers—who has doubtless done an excellent job with their lighting— uses realistic language :
Whilst we acknowledge that we are not going to make a dent to peoples eating habits, at least we can have a go at creating better spaces for people to be part of.
Lets not kid ourselves this is still the world of fast food, but it can be considered differently. Fast food, should not mean fast lighting
… It was everything about atmosphere and creating a vibe that was different from any chicken shop.”
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Permalink Reply by Philip on
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thanks for that link Clive...I have to say some of the reviews are pretty scathing....even jaw-dropping to the point of disbelieving laughter....
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Philip, let's be fair. there does seem to be a tendency for online restaurant reviews to be, shall we say, somethat polarised. They can be unbelievably glowing (Best food in this arm of the Galaxy. Book without delay any available seat on a hyperspace shuttle"). Or absurdly critical. "Official protests from Boulogne Town Council over cooking odours from new restaurant in Folkestone".
Let's please get things in perspective. ChickenTown is a fried chicken restaurant. It's not the discovery of the true meaning of life.
That's already been discovered by an ancient guru living in a cave in the Himalayas.
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Alan, I'm a big fan of Tripadvisor, and the only people briefing against it are poor quality outlets. I was recently on a trip to Bali, where a cafe we'd hopped into for a quick lunch bore the testament 'not on Tripadvisor' and yes, it was ****. Most Tripadvisor posts are fine, except for the glaringly obvious 'OMG this place is amazing' ones. Any fried chicken joint which is not Halal in London is history, but to declare that your joint would NEVER be halal is beyond the pale. In true ironic style, I am planning to go there just to see if it's really that bad......
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Permalink Reply by pamish on
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If they are claiming to be defenders of chicken welfare, then yes halal would be unthinkable.
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IF the Council were motivated solely by concerns of public health, they might consider running a campaign to boost the Borough's purveyors of fruit and veg.
However, established greengrocers don't offer the same photo-ops and glamour hipster appeal.
Lettuce and tomatoes don't lend themselves to the same opportunities for puff, such as happy herb-fed chickens, and happy little chicken farms. Did someone say that, before coming to Chicken Town the chickens enjoy jacuzzis?
One wag suggested that the happy chickens are so eager to come to their Town, that they're jumping up and down clucking, "Pick me, pick me!"
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Permalink Reply by James R Grinter on
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I've definitely read something recently about the rejuvenation of Holcombe Market.
But I would conjecture that new businesses are always going to be provide more "interesting" stories than well established ones that everyone already knows about (and, rightly or wrongly, will have already either decided to be regular customers or not).
Then again, there was a lot of good coverage and interest came out of the shop front refurbishments on the Tottenham High rd and West Green rd.
(As to CT I've been in there twice so far, once right after launch was a bit of a fail, but second visit was fine. The chicken does actually taste of chicken, rather than fat and oil, which is nice)
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James I agree about new businesses being more newsworthy.
However, the amount of publicity that the Council-sponsored business has enjoyed might lead one to believe that they'd come up with a miracle food, rather than fare that other new restaurants are also offering—but without massive press support.
I'm not sure that the huge PR effort will make a difference in the long run: the market is unforgiving. Unfortunately, the failure rate for start-up restaurants in general, is quite high.
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Alex, why make assumptions about Clive Carter's motivation?
At no time has he or anyone else said they want any restaurant or cafe to fail. -
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James, I went to a presentation about the shopfront refurbishments in High Road Tottenham and West Green Road. The architects involved presented a positive, upbeat view of the project with attractive slides.
In a Q&A after the presentation I raised several questions including whether these refurbishments would be maintained - especially by small businesses possibly operating on low margins. Also whether this was intended as a demonstration - a sort of 'snowball' project - to encourage other businesses to follow suit by investing their own money? And if so, whether this hoped for impact would be monitored. In other words would the experiment work? I also mentioned possible complications arising from the tenure of different premises, especially where businesses are renting from a chain of lessees. Or where there's say, an absentee landlord who just sees their freehold as a cash machine. Also how to prevent freehold owners using the refurbishment as an excuse to raise rents.
Haringey staff present felt it was not appropriate for the architects to deal with such questions. I was promised answers separately. As far as I can recall, no answer ever arrived.
There have been other such publicly-funded projects elsewhere in London. I've no idea whether at least some of them received even minimal but still rigorous independent value-for-money evaluation.
I don't objecting to experiments in support of small and medium independent businesses. I hope they succeed. But if there's no evaluation there is no learning.
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Alan, I reply to you here because the indenting above is too deep. I've mentioned my motivation elsewhere and it's largely about the prudent use of public funds (not necessarily all Council Tax).
Alex claims that I am "desperate for [CT] to fail". It ought to be apparent to all (see original thread) that it is not me who is desperate about the future of CT.
Wanting something and expecting something are different things and it's a distinction that some contributors to this subject fail to make.
If it fails, then it would be bad news for the Council and for taxpayers (not only Council tax payers) in respect of the £210,000 loan.
It has to be said that the decision to go ahead with this was a ("brave") political decision.
Alex also says that,
wouldn't it be best for everyone if it were a success?
Obviously yes. It's normally best that everything is a success.
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Who's saying the Council should be motivated "solely" by public health...why shouldn't we applaud something new...
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