Member Article

Good mood food popping up on a street near you

Successful food business hits the road with pop up drive-thru.

A mobile caterer has joined forces with an experienced events manager on a new business venture, Big Phillies Pop-up Drive-thru.

The team is popping up in several towns and villages around West Yorkshire, sharing the good mood food experience with the wider audience - locations are being announced on social media each week.

This development comes after the existing Cross Green drive-thru in Leeds has proven to be popular with locals and many customers driving from across the city and beyond.

Chantelle Davis, Director of Big Phillies explains:

“Our first location at The Halfway House in Stanningley on Saturday (20 March), was hugely popular. We’d like others to get in touch via email or social media, to request an appearance in your town or village. Just ask and we’ll make it happen.”

“Since opening in November, the demand for our drive-thru experience has been remarkable. Many people turned to takeaway services as a result of the current Government restrictions and were definitely in need of our ‘good mood food’ - the risk paid off.”

For more than 10 years prior to the pandemic, Chantelle Davis’ mobile catering company toured UK festivals and events with her different menu offerings. While this was a great success, when festivals were cancelled due to coronavirus, her business was put at risk. Having no fixed premises and therefore limited access to Government grants, Chantelle diversified her business in order to survive.

Also working the festival circuit, experienced events manager, Hayley Reynolds, had invested in the Bubble Bros Prosecco Van. With her business in the same position as Chantelle’s, the pair teamed up on the Big Phillies concept.

Chantelle continues: “Hayley and I have been working together to make Big Phillies happen. With over 20 years’ experience in events management, Hayley is in charge of the operations. We came up with the pop up idea together, as so many people have asked us on social media to bring the drive-thru to them. With the facilities we own, it has been fairly straightforward to put into practice.

“Big Phillies will pop up in pub car parks, to support landlords while they serve drinks and village halls to give the local community access to our good mood food.”

Hayley says: “We met as neighbours at many Yorkhire-based festivals and events. Both of our businesses were at risk when our full calendar of events were cancelled in March 2020 and after discussing Chantelle’s vision for Big Phillies, I knew that we could make it work together.

“Big Phillies pop-up drive-thru is the result of our combined experience: with my organisational skills and Chantelle’s entrepreneurial talent, this is the perfect opportunity to replicate the success of Big Phillies, this time on the road.

“Big Phillies already has a loyal customer base, once people get a taste of our food, they will come back for more.”

The pop up will stay for a select number of hours at each site as it passes through the area, with further locations to be announced in coming weeks.

Customers are able to safely and conveniently purchase food from their car, after pre-ordering and paying online to minimise contact. The same process will be in place for the pop up drive thru.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Jess Clark .