So, as some of you know, we at Pancho have this year decided to sponsor an award, one that means something to me. “Against all odds”. Something I have first hand experience with. I’ve been trying to find time to write about the early days of Pancho for a while now, I had intended to last year, when I invested in someone, only to have it thrown back in my face. Seemed patronizing to write it then…

“I deserve 2 days a week off”, “I deserve a life” were things I have heard when spending time with people who want to work for themselves. What you need to understand is that that is hugely unlikely for the first couple of years. I’ll tell you about the weeks working up to opening and the first few months of opening the restaurant. Might make you think twice.

My first three months of Pancho Tapas Bar being open, we were only open in the evening, from 7 until 10, for several reasons, but the main reasons being I was also working two full time jobs alongside Pancho. You see, it was my dream. What I wanted to do. I knew there was a gap in the market, and knew our food was better than most of what was available in Warwick, and certainly Leamington, at the time. I will return to the food in a later post, where it comes from, that it’s “not traditional”, something I heard from my competition, their suppliers, staff and customers. That wasn’t the point, and the menu clearly stated that… But, that’s for another time.

Tonight we are talking about sacrifice. “Two other full time jobs”, true story. My day worked like this….

I was working as a night porter as Ettington Manor hotel, from 10:30pm until about 6am. Hard work too. Setting up functions, dining rooms, bars, weddings, doing security runs of the whole site, yeah, if you’ve been there you’ll know… even the chapel! Scary on a misty sunrise!!

From the hotel I would jump in my little Smart Car and blast it back to Warwick, where I would sleep for a couple of hour, at most. Before moving on to my second job of the day, as a delivery agent for MyHermes. I had the rural route. Which would see me working from about 8 until 2 pm. Driving and delivering to all the villages south of Warwick. I did actually enjoy it to be honest, great fun. Except for the continual leaving of my scanner on the roof of the car…. Oh the joys of driving around the villages looking for it!

I would then pop home again, climb in to bed for perhaps 2-3 hours, then get up, head off to Pancho! Where we would open from 7 til 10, just enough time to keep the customers interested, and to build our name, our brand and get known for the great food and service we offered.

I, we believed in it. It was my dream, right? I never ever felt so alone. Ever. Even on my travels, when I was away from anyone I knew ‘well’, I was in the town I had chosen to call home, and was as lonely as possible. It’s not that there weren’t people around. There were of course. Now and then my friends would message, and invite me to something they knew deep down I had zero chance of going to. One of my best friends joined me to earn some money, he damn near saved me to be honest, and he knows that. Some of my friends behaved disgracefully, and they know who they are.

I lost out on being an usher at another best friend’s weddings because one of our friends who had invested in Pancho from the beginning felt that because he was upset at no immediate return on his investment, then our other friends should shun me too, and made life a little bit ridiculous for me. I still to this day don’t know the reason I wasn’t involved at the wedding more. All I got was “Oh, just something …… Said…”. The same person was upset that I hadn’t involved him in the project more, that person enjoyed, and still does enjoy, a drink more than most. I gave up drinking when I opened my restaurant. The cause of a lot of pubs, restaurants and bars closing is alcohol. The idea, and appearance of the drinks being “free”. They aren’t free. Someone is paying for them. I didn’t drink a touch for 6 months. Ironically, until the wedding!

Essentially I gave up my life to chase my dream. This is only the first few months. It’s gets worse. I’ll talk more in the coming days. The bonus to working 19 hour days, in a cellar, and not drinking? Weight loss. I lost more than 3 stone in 3 months.

After a few months I managed to be bringing in enough money to make ends meet, more or less. I found that the three jobs was killing me. I had a minor breakdown, no one knows that. I think one person might actually. But then, considering it, I’m not entirely sure many people know I was running the two jobs alongside the restaurant either. As such, after the breakdown, I needed to stop, and so focused solely on the tapas bar.

Which is where we will pick up next time. .....