Maximum Diner

Chris Nye

This is a book about a dream. The dream of running a restaurant. In Uckfield, East Sussex. Well, okay, Uckfield didn’t actually appear in the dream. But for Christopher Nye it was the perfect choice: a small town, but not too small; a town with a rising, young population that was literally crying out for an American-style Diner; a town without a McDonalds. So here¹s the story of how to make it big in Uckfield. How to find the right premises (if not quite the right location); how to hire teenage staff with vital teashop experience while giving work experience to a haute cuisine chef; how to cater for customers who pop in at 11.20pm on a Friday night, flexing their tattoos after they’ve been thrown out of the pub; how to avoid paying VAT on a Big Max and fries; and why you should never, ever, hire an Elvis impersonator on the cheap. Oh ­ and how to deal with McDonalds, when they...