New Coast Bus Restaurant Croyde – July 2019

In July we set up the first New Coast Bus Restaurant, Bustaurant if you will. The idea was simple, set up the bus and our mobile kitchen to be the hottest restaurant in North Devon. We chose Croyde as our initial spot for this venture and with help from our good friends at Freshwell Camping we were able to use part of their perfectly placed land over looking Croyde bay. James created a gorgeous and ambitious menu that comprised of 12 dishes, I did have to remind him he was in a small mobile kitchen but he was confident. We transformed the bus from a top deck sun drinking area to a 16 seat bus restaurant and I must say I thought it looked amazing, Nicole did an awesome job on the styling and all topped off with that sensational view of Croyde.   This was the first time we had ever attempted to put on a fully operating restaurant and bar on a bus in a campsite, so our plan was to not go crazy with bookings. We would rather give less people a better experience especially while we were learning how it all would work. The menu was packed full of local and fresh dishes at very reasonable prices from Mussels in white wine and cream with crusty sourdough to start (£8) to Glazed feather blade of Exmoor beef, truffle pomme, wild mushrooms and red wine jus for main (£15) all topped off with Salted caramel peanut butter brownie with ice cream (£8) for dessert.     The feedback from our first guests was amazing, everyone loved the quirkiness of the bus and the mouthwatering quality of the food. We did have some teething problems which we hope no one noticed with power, lighting and water but we came up with solutions and worked our way through them all. We have also upgraded some of our cutlery as our wedding event cutlery didn’t quite meet the standards that the food and the rest of crockery was setting. We also had the bar and outside area open and available to locals and campers, each night we tried to create a fun atmosphere for people to grab a drink and enjoy the sunset over Croyde. We have toyed with the idea of some live music and have since trialled it out with our resident DJ wan so keep an eye out for 2020 dates. Mike and the Freshwell team are on board for us to do this again in the summer of 2020 so stay tuned for dates and times 🙂