Page 46 - 368647 LP250846 In and Around Magazine 60pp A5 (November 2022)

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Neal Bullock and Andy Platts are shaking up the food scene with their growing catering firm
- and it all started with a “chance meeting over a pair of Adidas”.
They’re opening new venues across the region, And they’ve just got the keys to one of the area’s most popular places - The Derry at Long Newton. Greedy Soul, is absolutely flying. But rewind just two years ago, and it was a very different story for Neal.
The 49-year-old was furloughed from his job and wasn’t quite sure what to do next. “I was at home thinking ‘I’ve really got to look at my future’,”
says Neal, a ‘Middlesbrough lad’ who now lives in Ingleby Barwick.
“I sat in the bedroom and came up with a business plan, I thought ‘I’ve got to do something’ for myself’. Liam Gallagher’s song Greedy Soul came on the radio, I’m a big fan, so that was it - that’s where the name came from.”
He’d known Andy for a while and they both “shared a passion for Adidas trainers, “He posted some trainers on social media, the LEGO Adidas, and I messaged him saying I was gutted I couldn’t get that particular pair. He said he had some for me - so I got in the car to go and get them.
Andy already ran several businesses including Roseberry View Lodge Retreat at Great Ayton. “I knew he was a successful businessman in his own right,” says Neal, “and I respected his judgement. I showed him the plan and he went really quiet. He didn’t say a dickie bird, for about ten minutes. I’m sat there thinking ‘there’s something not right here’.
“The next day, he phoned me and said ‘I’m in’. I said ‘what?’ - he said ‘I’m in, let’s go for it’.
They started looking for premises, and in the 18 months it’s been established, Greedy Soul has taken on community based pubs including The Fountain in Ormesby, The Huntsman in Woodham, The Derry in Long Newton and now the Gate at Framwellgate moor.
Each of the premises that we have taken on are all community based pubs that have either lost their way or failed for one reason or another, “we want to establish these pubs as the heartbeat of the community once again’.
The ethos of Greedy Soul is a simple one offer great service and food at an affordable price and give the community a pub to be proud of.
We are extremely excited at the prospect of re opening the Gate, it’s a fantastic pub in a great area, we have big plans for the outside space and can’t wait for the summer to come.
The reopening is planned for early December just in time for the world cup.
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