CK In my last blog I kicked off my support of the Kent Life & Kent on Sunday Food & Drink Awards because I really want to see the Tonbridge eating scene receive some recognition!
Last time I focused on the Café of the Year category. I’m dedicating this post to Newcomer of the Year as quite frankly, Tonbridge is bursting at the seams with new places (& I spotted two more this week – Nancy’s Tea Rooms in Lambert’s Yard & Favola’s artisan ice cream shop & Italian café!)
I have reviewed or met with the people behind many of these sparkly new eating places and the links to the write-ups are listed at the bottom of this page.
But your favourite place needs your nominations in order for it to be considered for the awards’ short list; you might like to include in your comment “what impact they have made on the local community…..Are they helping to promote Kent food & drink to a new audience, or have they found a new way to promote an old favourite?”*
Your nomination doesn’t have to be somewhere that you can sit down to eat, it could be a retailer (think the Bakehouse at 124), a takeaway (Sulston’s Kitchen), perhaps a cake maker, drinks’ producer or even yours truly: “anyone in the food or drink industry who has started a new venture within the last 18 months”.*
And if you’re in any doubt, here’s what some of the potential nominees have to say about what it would mean to them to win…”Winning an award is justification and confirmation that we are a great business with good staff & quality food…it would mean a lot to not just me but the whole team, they would have been rewarded for their very hard work,” Trevor Crysell, owner, Graze.
“For Sulston’s Kitchen to be recognised by the Kent Life FDA at this stage in our business would help us to spread our message that healthy food can be really tasty, affordable & genuinely improve people’s lives. As a young, independent business, it would not only support our growth but the growth of all the local suppliers we use enabling us to continue building the vibrancy of Tonbridge, ” Ben Sulston, Sulston’s Kitchen.
“It would be great to be nominated, ” says Sam Goode from Tonbridge Old Fire Station, “This venture is bringing an old building back to life and providing the people of Tonbridge with new dining experiences from top chefs.”
Remember, it’s not ‘first past the post’ in these awards; nominations are reviewed by the panel of judges, comments digested before the judges visit their respective short list entries….So get nominating! http://kentfda.co.uk/nominate/
The list below does not cover all the new food & drink ventures in Tonbridge – there are lots more!
I know which newcomer I’m nominating, do you?
Closing date for nominations is 7 August 2016
* Taken from Kent Life Magazine
