Northamptonshire man pursues dream restaurant business after being made redundant due to Covid crisis

A 54-year-old man from Daventry, who was made redundant from his well-paid job as a logistics manager due to the pandemic, is pursuing his dream of opening a "unique" restaurant.

David McIntyre will be renting the bottom floor of a large listed building based in The Depot, Weedon Bec, for his high-end, international cuisine restaurant, Kitchener's.

The buildings at The Depot were previously used for storage of small arms and field artillery during the First World War, which inspired David to call it Kitchener's after Lord Kitchener, a famous and historical British military figure.

Entering the hospitality industry has always been a dream of David's, but it was just that, a dream, while he worked his nine-to-five job, often stuck on the motorway in rush-hour traffic, staying away in hotels, missing his wife Rachel and not feeling as satisfied as he felt he could be.

Then, in July last year, he was made redundant from his position at logistics company DHL. David said he has faced redundancy before, as it's the territory which comes with the industry, but he still struggled this time around.

He said: "It was pretty bad but I have been made redundant before. When I realised there were no jobs around it got a bit real and a bit scary. It was a bit of a struggle. I was stuck between sticking to what I know or trying something new. I've worked in hospitality previously, I've always wanted to own a pub or something.

"I didn't particularly enjoy logistics but it's something that I could do and always have done. The pandemic and redundancy has been that shot in the arm that made me think 'if I don't follow my dream now then I will never do it'.

"It's something I have wanted to do and the pandemic has been a bit of a blessing in terms of the circumstances I have found myself in. It's a blessing I am able to do this."

After getting over his redundancy, David started figuring out his future plans and inquired about the empty unit 17 at The Depot, a tall, red-brick building next to a canal.

He said: "If I had not been made redundant I would not have gone to The Depot. I was looking at the unit and thought "this is something I can take on". As soon as I walked in there I thought it was huge. I went to bed that night and couldn't sleep because I was thinking about all the things I could do in there."

Now, David has big plans in the pipeline for the restaurant and wants to put his Master of Business Administration degree into practice.

He said: "I have decided to plow all of my redundancy money into something I have never done before. It's going to be different cuisine to what is available in the area. It's quite British food around here so I thought I want to do something different.

"I want to make it a little bit quirky instead of a normal restaurant. I don't like the idea of employing one chef where it gets a bit stale and repetitive for them to keep cooking the same dishes.

"I just want to make it a little bit inventive, a bit different, quirky, unique. I want to make it innovative rather than a standard pub."

David said he plans to have a different international cuisine each night at the restaurant, with a different, "guest" chef to prepare the food. "So on Monday it could be Italian night, Tuesday could be Thai and Sunday could be a carvery," David said.

He added: "I am just trying to build it while I have all this time on my hands. I have done a lot of the groundwork and am champing at the bit to get in there. My family said they can't get their heads round the fact that I am going to be running a restaurant - I wish I had done it 10 years ago. If I don't do it now, I will never do it."

David said he plans to fully open the restaurant in mid-June, but will operate as a gourmet breakfast and coffee takeaway from a gazebo outside the restaurant at the end of March time.

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