Ben welcomes Joe Buckley, owner of The Tollemache Arms in Harrington. The community he has cultivated around the pub has led to an interesting crowdfunding project, part of a wider trend in the hospitality industry.
Joe’s passion for food and the hospitality industry started early through home cooking and food programmes like Gordon Ramsey’s Boiling Point. His early roles included Seasons Bistro at Rushden and Diamonds when he was just fourteen, before moving into local pubs and going to college to continue his training. After a stint in Nottingham, he returned to Northamptonshire and became a general manager at The Red Lion in East Haddon, where he met his business partner and they eventually struck out together to take over The Tollemache Arms.
The Tollemache Arms
In the eight years since they’ve aimed to create a place for all occasions. It was very run down initially, requiring a four-month refurb, but it’s since grown into a thriving business. The last few years have been difficult due to the pandemic, but it also provided an opportunity to rethink the business and find new avenues for revenue.
Now, The Tollemache Arms requires another refurb project and Joe has pursued a crowdfunding model to fund the work. By framing the project as buying better experiences in the future, and providing some incredible bonuses for giving money, the initiative raised its goal of £30,000 in just four days.
The rewards for donating are incredible: meals from guest chefs, a Northampton Saints charity day with the players cooking and serving, music visits from the chefs to come and cook at your house, all unique experiences that provide an extra incentive to donate. These events have also helped de-risk the business, with money having already come in advance for big events over the next few months.
Ben compliments the social campaign building up to the launch of the campaign, which provided important feedback and let the pub know they were doing the right thing, with 250 people on a pre-sign-up list. While the campaign was a success, Joe doesn’t think they’ll do another for The Tollemache Arms, unless it was an exceptional project. However, they may do another if they decide to expand the business and bring more pubs into their group.
Tolly Fest
Another of Joe’s passion projects is Tolly Fest, The Tollemache Arm’s yearly beer festival. He thinks every pub should have a beer festival, but it’s in his nature to try and do it to the best of his ability. They’re able to support over 30 local businesses between the street food vendors and breweries invited to attend. They even did it in rainy conditions last year and it still was very well attended.
Joe isn’t new to the world of podcasting. He hosts the Pub Life podcast, launching next month in May, highlighting people doing exceptional things within hospitality despite the difficult conditions the industry finds itself in. He says it was hard to see what chefs were doing back in the day, but now with social media, it’s a lot easier to find inspiration, so he hopes to be part of that movement.
Watch and listen to the podcast here:
