Veggie food for all tastes
HE'S not a man to do things by half, so it was little surprise when TV chef Simon Rimmer explained his empire-building plans to me over lunch at his acclaimed veggie restaurant, Greens in Didsbury.
When he took over the smart little eatery in cosmopolitan West Didsbury in 1990 he had no formal kitchen training, and just two books on vegetarian food.
But today he's planning to double the size of the much-lauded restaurant by expanding into the premises next door - planning permission is already lodged for the conversion - he has a range of vegetarian ready meals about to roll out in Sainsbury stores and is on the verge of opening another two restaurants in Greater Manchester in the next 12 months.
That's apart from the half dozen or so networked TV shows he is a regular face on.
Simon Rimmer is certainly a man on a mission.
"I want to use the opportunity which is now available, to use the reputation I have, to expand and develop my businesses," he says. "Now my profile has been raised it is the right time to drive the business forward."
Add astute businessman to that list would you?
"Likes their meat"
I'm one of those blokes, as Simon so eloquently puts it, "who likes their meat", so it was a challenge, to say the least, to get me into Green's.
But one deep fried oyster mushroom and a Cheshire cheese sausage later and I was hooked. The food's great at Greens, even for carnivores like myself.
"I'm not vegetarian and the food has to be able to get past me before it gets anywhere near the menu," Simon tells me. "Because I am a meat eater I approach vegetarian food from a different mindset. It has to be exciting on its own because veg and two veg just doesn't work."
Simon has two restaurants. Greens, and the non-vegetarian Earle in Hale. And he's going to be opening two more in the next year.
"I will be doing something new, a vegetarian place, in the next six months or so. And then next year I have plans for a new non-vegetarian project. I can't say much more than that at the minute," he says.
"I looked at a few places in the city centre but the rents were very high. But I'd love to open a pub which serves great food in the city centre, along the lines of what Robert Owen Brown did at The Bridge. That's not in the plans at the moment but, you never know.
"I have to pinch myself at the moment because of everything that is happening," the affable Scouser tells me. "I was at a Liverpool game the other day and Robbie Fowler came over to me and said hello. I was in the directors' box with Alan Hansen and Jason McAteer and had drinks with Ian Rush too. I couldn't quite believe it to be honest. I'm like a kid in a sweet shop at the moment."
Greens, Lapwing Lane, West Didsbury, Manchester, M20 2NT. 0161 434 4259.
Published: Fri, 02 May, 2008
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