7 minute read
Harry’s Diner A little corner of America flourishes in Filey.
AMERICAN DREAM
John Robins and Josh Collins have created their own little corner of America in Filey in North Yorkshire and diners are fl ocking from miles around.
THE LOWDOWN
HARRY’S DINER, FILEY, NORTH YORKSHIRE
Format American-style diner Owner John Robins Time as catere 25 years Covers 275 Staff: 16 and will hire another 10 for summer Opening hours: 9am-10pm seven days a week
Move over fi sh and chips, a new diner is bringing a taste of the States to the seaside town of Filey in North Yorkshire and locals and holidaymakers alike can’t get enough of it. Founded by life-long caterer John Robins and business partner Josh Collins, Harry’s American Diner has transformed a once nondescript section of the main road between Bridlington and Scarborough into a highway to quality American-style fare and an utterly unique dining experience.
John explains: “I’ve been in catering since I left school at 18 and ran pubs for most of that time while my business partner Josh was an area manager for ‘Five Guys’ in the US. We’re passionate about the industry but we’ve always held a similar dream of opening our own place that would offer diners something unexpected, quirky and cool. Finding the right site was always the diffi culty.”
John on Food
That difficulty eased unexpectedly one spring day in early 2020 when Josh and his sister stumbled across a large former car garage site. Josh explains: “My sister had a caravan in a nearby park and one day we saw that it was up for let and thought ‘let’s take a look.’ It was a vast hangar-style structure and was a blank canvas for development. Its location on the busy A16 meant it would be a magnet for passing trade as well as for nearby holiday parks. There was also no other catering competition nearby.”
However, with the pandemic prompting the UK’s first national lockdown just days after John and Josh took over the site, the challenge to convert it from hangar to banger was huge. “We took over in March 2020 just before lockdown," laughs Josh. “The upside was that we learned how to build, and we did most of it ourselves."
The decision to turn it into an American-style diner "just felt right", he says: "The site lent itself to the concept perfectly. We knew we wanted the look to be cool and quirky and spent a lot of time sourcing all of the interesting features." The result is truly cameraworthy. Walls adorned with black and white photos of American film stars, statues of sporting superstars and
JOHN'S SPECIAL BOARD
Keep it fresh
We buy fresh as much as possible to ensure we are selling the best quality dishes we can. All our burgers are made fresh every single day, for instance.
Classic approach
We major on classic American fare but if you are going down the classic road it is got to be top quality to help it stand out from the crowd.
Delivered benefits
Our partnership with Just Eat has become a major driver of our success, especially during traditionally slower months.
SOCIALSELLING
SOCIAL SELLING
Harry’s Diner
John, Josh and the team at Harry’s have spent hours scouring the country for “quirky” US-inspired decorative features and touches to give the diner an utterly unique look and feel. The result has created a truly Instagram-worthy space that diners can’t resist.
Diners come from miles around just to order a milkshake and a burger and spend the rest of it taking photos of themselves in the space to upload to Instagram and Facebook. It sells itself. Social media sites such as Instagram and Facebook are playing an increasingly powerful role in raising the profile of the business and they now employ a dedicated person to help manage the businesses social feeds.
famous historical figures and even classic American cars.
“Diners love with the look,” John says. “They come from miles just to order a milkshake and burger and take photos of themselves to upload to Instagram and Facebook. It sells itself really! We opened as soon as we could after lockdown was lifted which was literally the best timing as it was the fourth of July – American Independence Day. We didn’t have a vast amount of time to prepare a grand opening but even so, the opening day was epic."
Since then, Harry's Diner has grown and grown and the business turns over upwards of £30,000 a week, and that’s during a quieter time of year.
“The food offer is totally American," enthuses Josh. "We do American-style breakfasts in the mornings with classics like homemade pancakes and waffles and then we serve burgers, hotdogs and ribs throughout the day and evening. It’s a simple menu but everything is high quality and fresh.
“Bacon Cheeseburger is by far the most popular thing on our menu. It’s the classics that sell all day long although we do shake things up with new additions every couple of months to add interest. We’ve just added a Mexican Burger with loaded nachos which is popular."
All burgers are made fresh on site every day and there’s nothing in them but 100% British beef, all from Booker. "Everything we sell is from Booker," says Josh. "We work closely with the butchers in branch. They mince our beef up fresh every day and have it ready to collect. We get through at least 20 kilos a day.
“Soft drinks and milkshakes are huge sellers and we do upwards of 600 milkshakes a day. We do a range of classic flavours such as vanilla and chocolate, but we also do ‘Harry’s Shakes’ in on-trend Nutella and
Lotus Biscoff and Oreo flavours. All the ingredients come from Booker.
Josh and the team also make a lot of their own accompaniments on site such as guacamole using ingredients from Booker such as herbs and fresh vegetables but they also buy a lot of the Chef’s Larder sauces too like the Mayonnaise, Mustard and BBQ sauce.
“We are a very seasonal business and benefit from a huge lift in the summer but that’s not to say winter is quiet," Josh adds. "We are doing an increasingly big takeaway trade thanks to new partnerships
with Just Eat and Deliveroo and we have parking for 40 cars out the front so people can pop in for takeaways.
"Just Eat has become huge for us. As a Just Eat Restaurant Partner, there’s an exclusive cashback rate at Booker which can earn you up to 7% cashback on almost every purchase. That scheme alone has been an incredible help, especially during the quieter months. “Just Eat has become huge and it’s growing all the time; an exclusive cashback rate at Booker earns up to 7% cashback on almost every purchase, which has been an incredible help, especially during the quieter months.”
“In the summer sales tend to skyrocket. We currently have 16 members of staff but that will rise to around 30 in the summer.”
Unsurprisingly, Josh and John are excited about 2022. "We’ve only been open eight months so there’s a lot of firsts to come and we’re really looking forward to building up to the summer months and making even more of our outdoor area at the back," says Josh. "The outdoor area can seat another 200-plus people and is perfect for big events and functions.
“We had our first taste of that in October when we put on a Halloween event. We built a large spooky maze out of old fences and scrap from recycling centres and themed it all with different zones: a zombie section, a scarecrow area, creepy clowns. It was banging!
“We ticketed the maze and offered everyone who bought tickets 20% off their food bills. We thought we might sell 500 tickets but ended up selling more than 1,500. It turned a quieter time of the year into a great month.
Josh concludes: “I’m immensely proud of what we’ve done here at Harry’s Filey. The last two years have been like nothing any of us have ever experienced before. We’ve pushed ourselves to our limits and all of that against the backdrop of a global pandemic, but it’s been so, so worth it.”
