Day Two: Monday 31st July 2017.

I did all of the driving on this days voyage, so Owen could be ready with his camera to jump out and photograph the Little Chefs. The new system was much more efficient. We started the day with tired crumpet faces and without breakfast but safe in the knowledge the first Little Chef stop was just seven minutes away…

Eleventh Stop: A1 Grantham (stand alone)

We arrived to the second Grantham Little Chef stand alone wooden lodge style diner just before 9am. It was a seven minute drive from the Travelodge combined Little Chef we stopped at the previous night and we were planning to get our Olympic Breakfast there but sadly we were too late.

We spent much of Sunday speculating if Debbie was right and if thirty Little Chefs really were closing overnight as so many we visited didn’t seem certain this was the case, but sadly Monday morning confirmed Debbie’s speculation. We were greeted in the car park by a friendly bearded Burger King employee come Little Chef enthusiast who immediately took interested in our van and project. He was stood by a heaving pile of Little Chef chairs, dustbins and crockery stock taking them before lifting them into a van. Owen photographed the building and piles of debris and Mary the store manager for over thirty five years came outside in the Charlie mascot head to have her photograph taken. This is the first time I’ve seen ‘Charlie’ since the 1990’s and my fear of masks and mascots is certainly still there. We left the store safe in the knowledge that all the staff still had jobs in the new Starbucks opening in eight weeks time and feeling like we’d provided some sort of gratitude documentation to Mary’s thirty five years in service to the Little Chef. She said ‘It’s a sad time, don’t get me wrong there are bad little chefs out there but we weren’t one. We looked after the regulars, we were clean, worked hard and had a laugh. I’ll never be able to drive past here again and feel the same. It is sad.’

Twelfth Stop: A16/17 Spalding

We were excited and hungry about getting our breakfast in Spalding having missed it in Grantham. It was a truck stop joined to a Burger King with parking for large vehicles. Our van looked tiny in the car park. It felt like the Little Chef was used by truckers as well as locals. Only when we arrived there was a hand written notice on the door that read ‘Due to an electricity fault we are running from a limited menu’. We couldn’t believe our bad luck. Adam - a Little Chef employee and enthusiast for the company asked if Owen was a bird watcher with his camera. We told him about our project and he was quite touched. He speculated, with tears in his eyes about the closure of their own branch, unaware what the future is but said it’s likely to become a Starbucks/Greggs combo. Adam said they had been trying to contact Head Office about the electricity for weeks as they weren’t able to run the grill, order new foods and had only a very limited menu they could serve. A family before us were turned away and we soon moved on hungry to find the next Little Chef that could serve us an Olympic breakfast, leaving behind six employees to await the next punters politely showing them the limited menu they were able to serve.

Thirteenth Stop: A47 Peterborough

Finally, breakfast! I had a veggie Early Riser: fried egg, beans, veggie sausage, sauté potatoes, grilled tomatoes and fried bread and Owen had the huge Veggie Olympic Breakfast - quite similar but double in size with extra fried beige items like hash browns and mushrooms. We washed them down with frothy coffees and an extra take away Cappuccino for the road. It was actually delicious and looked just like the website image of the re-branded breakfast. Before entering the branch a smiling waitress ran out to Owen with a 7-8 year old child’s ‘Little Chef’ t-shirt and insisted he take it as he must be a fan. Over breakfast we told her about our project and signs on the Little Chef window showed they knew they were closing, soon so were only stocking breakfast items, not the full menu. The staff know the store is going to be a Starbucks but have no idea of time scale until Head Office turn up. It could be in two weeks or six months they said. We felt full and happy to have eaten and chatted with nice people. Onwards!

Fourteenth Stop: SW Peterborough

This branch looked like a stand alone Little Chef with the traditional wooden lodge/American diner style decor but was actually adjoined to a Burger King. We quickly took the snaps. As we drove off we realised the Little Chef sign had a faded from red to a pink colour and read ‘Little Chef are recruiting now!’ which must have been on the grassy bank for many years.

Fifteenth Stop: Thrapston

This service station felt like it belonged on a motorway. It was huge with a travel lodge and Burger King adjoined. The car park here was full and it felt busy. Lots of cars here were behaving weirdly, and packed full of holiday makers.

There was lots on traffic en route. We passed an enormous Cath Kinston depot.

Sixteenth Stop: A1 meets A421 Bedford

A family of two grandparents, a mother and two small children met at this Little Chef for lunch and went in. Owen said the restaurant was busy and as we were filling for fuel he said “It’s posh inside that one was.”

Seventeenth Stop: A421 Bedford

By now we had experienced lots of bad drivers undertaking us on the A roads and eager to get to their holiday destination at any cost. Owen go out to take the photo. It seemed to take a while to get the angle correct and then he said ‘It didn’t look brilliant but alright inside’.

Eighteenth Stop: A435 meets A5 Towcester

By now we were ploughing through the Little Chefs and we were starting to get a bit delirious. The weather was quite warm and we were constantly going back on ourselves to get onto the right side of the A roads. We both started picking up American accents and were speaking as if we were storm chasers following the hot trail of Little Chef restaurants. We passed lots of buildings attempting to blend in with the skyline; such as River Island & Barr Soft Drinks with blue stripy warehouse building exteriors and a huge Morrissons with a green and yellow stripy warehouse depot. By the time we reached the Little Chef it was a stand alone and wasn’t open. It wasn’t easy to photograph but had the old fashioned classic LC interior. we wondered if this was another stand alone that closed for good just the evening before? Next to but not adjoined was a Travel Lodge. I noticed a man waiting near the fire exit with a room key and shortly afterwards a much younger lady pulled into the car park in a Mercedes and ran out to meet him. The pair ducked inside the Travel Lodge together for their meeting. Just a little observation of A road activity I thought good enough to note.

Nineteenth Stop: A41 Bicester

This small ran down Little Chef adjoined another Burger King.

Twentieth Stop: A40/A361 Butford

We were tired by this point and needed to stop for a drink and to stretch our legs. The next Little Chef was quite a surprise. It was in a listed 16th Century barn conversion and had gold lettering for ‘Little Chef’ on the exterior. From the outside it looked amazing. Inside it did feel a little stuck in the past, the tables were empty and dusty but the building itself was pretty amazing. No-one else was inside the massive congregational space of the Little Chef cathedral. Not a good sign but we ordered our hot drinks and chatted to the staff; only two were on… “you won’t find another Little Chef like this one” the older chap said. The younger lad was curious about our project and was asking us lots of questions. They both seemed relatively blarzay about the branch turning to a Starbucks and maybe even a little excited about the training in Gloucester and the lack of cooking hot food because in their words “it’s all grab and go these days.”

Twenty First Stop: Cirencester

The building was modern and fresh and adjoined to a Burger King. It really was quite smart.

En route we passed through lots of heavy rain and drove through the Cotswolds and past a place called Altrincham Mill. Tour buses were pulled up along the road and river side and masses of tourists photographed our van passing through, which in my mind must have looked like the opening credits from Postman Pat.

When we arrived I planned to just stay put in the van and do my usual update of the chalk board and re-set the Sat Nav but the staff were amazing when we arrived and the store manager Lovely Lyndsey ran out to us and insisted one of her staff get on the full Fat Charlie mascot outfit to pose for a photo with us outside. Lyndsey used to work at the previous Little Chef Cathedral and was happy we’d been there to visit. She seemed sceptical about the future of a Starbucks in Little Chefs place and isn’t a fan of their ethos for not supporting American service men. Something we hadn’t heard of before I need to look into. She was keen for us to stay for a coffee but we had to decline and get on the road to Cornwall.

We thought this would be the last stop of the evening and it felt like a really good one to end on.

Twenty Second Stop: A30 Cornwall

We were approaching our holiday and weren’t going to stop at this branch until the return journey but as we drove along the quiet A road and directly past the branch it felt silly not to stop and snap. The staff ran out to ask what we were doing. They said “it must be the week for photos, we had the Google man here yesterday taking pictures of The Burger King”. They were bemused with our project and said “we won’t know when we close until Head Office come in and tell us” and this is the kind of comments we had from a lot of branches. They know all the stores have to close by the end of 2017. Everyone is almost nonchalant that Little Chef is closing; perhaps we’ve all been subconsciously aware for some time that they are declining. We are getting used to the decrease of red and white diners and the increase of Starbucks and Greggs. For the staff, they seem to feel assured new jobs will replace the old and it’s just speculation when exactly their Little Chef will go and what exactly will replace it. Some people are certainly more sad than others. But for many employees it seems their management has changed so often and Head Office has been closing down and neglecting communication with the branches that people are now just curious for the change, whatever that may be.

From here we drove onto our holiday destination, where we relaxed, reflected and took stock of the Little Chef goodies we collected along the way. During the first two days of the Every Little Chef trail we had covered 703.3 miles and visited TWENTY TWO Little Chef branches.