Before delving into my monologue :) … the internet at Coopers seems to be behaving consistently again now having changed suppliers away from BT, a new router, and I think some work went on with the junction box, so hopefully good news again for those that like to work here...
So, 2016 seems to have been a block building life changer. So many massive events from many well-known people passing away including Prince, Victoria Wood, Terry Wogan & David Bowie (just to name a few) to all the political turmoil putting many thoughts and beliefs into questioning and dividing opinion.
I think the important thing to take from it all is solidarity and again positivity – a continuation of my last post. For Coopers it will also be all about creating more consistency and keeping the vibe of the place chilled and inspiring. This is something we at Coopers have worked hugely on and hope to really focus in on in 2017.
Last year we tried a lot of different things, persisted with Live Music, testing different food and building a strong united #teamcoopers!
Customer feedback has been the driving force to many changes we have made, from getting a grab and go fridge for speed to pushing the Friday night dining experience. We really listen to customers, their thoughts and ideas. During the peaks, it’s really important to keep the flow, as many of you know our lunch periods can be crazy busy.
This year at Coopers we going to hone in on a few new developments.
Our biggest will be the big change we already made with Riverlight. You may have seen the post about us closing the Bourne End Marina location as a full-time restaurant. We will leverage the stunning river fronted location by holding events there – think pop-up restaurant/supper club style, private functions and catering. In turn, this is where it will help Coopers. We will produce the food for Coopers here, giving us great, fresh food and consistency to fill up the Grab & Go chiller. (Though of course as well as taking away you can eat in for sure). We will also gradually extent the offering from here with cute little yogurt pots with homemade curds & compotes, mini tarts/pies, breakfast muffins and fruit pots. We can go back to making interesting chutneys, fillings, dressing and all sorts.
This will all be happening as of MONDAY 16th JAN – This coming Monday! YAY
In the near future, we are also thinking about a lunch ‘meal deal’ but of course trying to think of a better name being the awkward people we are that love creativity.Coffee wholesale is also another area we will be pushing this year. The awesome people at Rebellion have been selling bags of Jabbajaws in the amazing little shop. I will be looking at where might wish to improve their coffee offer – If anyone know of good quality establishments that would be interested point them our way!
There are also a few other thoughts in the pipeline so watch this space, we may need your help! The aim will be to inspire future generations and keep providing a haven to encourage creativity and continue being the space to chill and be yourself. This is starting with a brilliant art course for 5 weeks starting the 6th Feb.
e have had a few notable events at Coopers last year, with the refugee talk over the LoveMarlow week and more recently an enlightening talk by Links International and the work they do. On a personal note we get a lot of sports people (some becoming stars this year!) who are a great inspiration and superb role models for all, especially in my opinion younger people, rather than some of the people gaining celebrity status for going out and getting drunk or just spending money such as some from ‘Celebrity’ Big Brother!? Who are some of them? How can you help?
We would love to get different groups in for talks and activities and see where we go. Collaboration could be a huge amount of fun. Maybe you can provide an inspirational talk? Provide a fun activity? Get in touch, we can’t promise anything if you have something specific in mind but we are open to ideas always. We can’t promise anything as it still needs to make business sense for us, but interested to know what is out there and if it could work.
One final thing – is anyone out there looking for co-working space? ‘Riverlight’ (probably renaming it) could be a fantastic space during business hours for use as co-working space/hot desk. There is loads of light, funky décor, dedicated parking, a nearby train station and there would be great food available, plus if you are part of a larger corporate we could then plan evening events for you, or as a consultant needing to have a special client event or team building space, we could be there for you…. all without having to worry about finding office space, being tied into long leases, worrying about business rates and various other overheads. It is something we are thinking about but before we go down that avenue It would be great to get thoughts on this. Are you, or anyone you know interested in this? Let us know and it could happen.
And of course, many ask after him... Cooper is doing great. Plenty of energy at the moment, still loving running around with tennis balls (no throwing) and not at all put off swimming in the river even with some of the freezing cold snaps we've experienced.
