Lifestyle

Majority Rules – The Wicked Witch

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‘Oh, the refurb was not enjoyable at all,’ Nicola agrees. ‘It was so stressful. And way more work than we expected. New kitchen, new floors, new fires, new toilets; it really was a case of replacing everything.’

But the storm is now over and the Witch is settling into a more sedate routine now that it’s up and running. ‘I think we’ve been doing a pretty good job of getting people through the doors’ Nicola says with pride. ‘And when they get here, they all tend to be very surprised by how it looks. They all say it’s amazing and nothing like anything else in the area. There are so many pubs that just look the same and serve the same kind of food.’

Mark Bunce agrees. ‘Yeah, all good eateries in the area look remarkably similar; they’re all cream walls, wooden beams, and very traditional. I like to think we’ve kept a little bit of the theme of the country pub but added something different, too.’

There are plans afoot for more different occasions too as Sarah Bunce explains. ‘As the summer months come in, we’re planning to do jazz Sundays as part of a big Sunday brunch thing. So it won’t be a standard Sunday roast at the standard time; it’ll start a bit earlier and people can have a very chilled day trying lots of different kinds of food, drinking champagne, and listening to good music. Something a little bit different. There are a few places in London that do that but certainly nowhere round here.’

The Wicked Witch has already had one celebrity diner’s stamp of approval in the form of Darren’s dad, Manchester United boss, Sir Alex Ferguson. ‘Yeah, my mum and dad came here a couple of weeks ago and really liked it,’ Darren says. ‘I’m pretty close with my dad so we’re in touch all the time. And people have been fine with him: he doesn’t get pestered when he comes in for a meal; people tend to pretty much leave him alone.’

Darren, a former Man Utd player himself, seems quite comfortable with having such a famous father, though he realises he doesn’t exactly have a choice in the matter. ‘I’ve never known any different,’ he says. ‘I know I’m always going to be referred to as Sir Alex’s son and he’s not going to change his name, is he? It is what it is.’

He also feels that some of the skills he’s developed as a football manager have been transferable to running a restaurant. ‘I would say so – you’ve got to manage people in this game, too, at times. There’s been occasions when we’ve had to sit down and make decisions between the four of us and it can be three-to-one so the majority always wins. Whether it’s decisions about the wallpaper, the menu, or the staff, that’s the way we do it and it seems to be working so far.’

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