How James Bond saved a rural community restaurant

As it came out of the worst year ever for restaurant closures it was faced with eviction. Odds were The Long Table wouldn’t make it, but its now expanding thanks to Daniel Craig! Just what went right?

Dear readers,

I thought we’d take a look at a business story that’s been bubbling away in the Stroud Valleys for a while now, a saga partly covered by our friends on the Stroud Times, about a business that tomorrow (Friday 8 November) expands into Cirencester.

I thought it deserved a closer look not least because Raikes has history with the organisation in question. It was one of the first big features we looked at when it emerged - more as a movement than a business - back in the Covid-19 pandemic, during Raikes’ first iteration.

What fascinates me is that here is a business that really shouldn’t work at all, but is thriving by charting its own course across the unforgiving hospitality sector, that has an incredible following (the phrase ‘brand loyalty’ just sounds wrong in this case), is staff-heavy, pays the living wage and above, doesn’t even charge set prices, gives its produce away for free or below cost at times, and was faced with eviction for the second time in the last three y…