A chef has been forced to close his debut venture, an ambitious sandwich shop on the edge of Manchester, after a single day’s trading after being overwhelmed by the sheer number of guests.
Kieran O’Reilly launched Ruger Fjord in Lees near Oldham on Saturday, pitching it variously as a “focaccia lounge” and a “really good butty shop with a fine-dining take on things“. Combining “Scandinavian simplicity with Italian craft“, it serves his signature “pocaccia” – a pan-fried, panko, puffball focaccia – with fillings made from as many as 20 ingredients, such as an eight-hour beef rendang with kaffir lime leaf emulsion.
Within 90 minutes of opening, a queue of customers had stripped Fjord of a week’s supplies – leaving Keiran with no option but to shut the venue down for a rethink.
Later that day he issued a post on social media saying: “WE NEED TO CLOSE. RUGER FJORD. Day 1. Sellout within 1 hour and 30 mins. This isn’t sustainable, we don’t want to let anyone down. We’re closing, we’re having meetings with the investors. More stand mixers, more dough, more bread, more sandwiches. We apologise for any inconvenience, but we do not want to drop in quality or turn anyone away.”
He added: “We’re going to speak to our investors about scaling the team, scaling the dough so that we can never run out, so everybody can eat the sandwiches and experience us at Fjord, make sure that our customer service is perfect so that we’re not rushing around and nobody’s getting sent away.”
After discussions with his backers and team, Kieran announced this week that Ruger Fjord would operate under two new formats: a set number of sandwiches for takeaway to be dropped on specific dates and reserved online, starting with 100 on the weekend of June 20/21, along with a bookable sit-down hosted dinner-and-show package costing from £30 per person.
The dinners will consist of snacks and dips followed by a “show” in which sandwiches will be assembled in front of guests, with a full commentary. Keiran expects the dinners to be booked up six months in advance, and has advised would-be guests to watch his social media for details of the reservation system.
The founder was taken by surprise at the “unreal and crazy” turnout on the opening day, saying he had expected to have to open Fjord every day in order to make ends meet in the early months, and was planning to operate without staff on quieter midweek days.
Having worked in some of the north west’s best restaurants, including Harden’s-listed Mana in Manchester and The Forest Side in the Lake District, he clearly clearly did an excellent job of raising expectations via social media – but his pitch was decidedly modest.
Ahead of launch, he said: “Hospitality is facing a difficult time at the moment, but I think people do connect best when they can see that someone puts a real passion into what they are doing. I’m not doing this to make loads of money – as long as we can pay ourselves and our staff a wage and keep the lights on, then that’s all we need.
“It’s not a chain, it’s not a big name, but it is something that I am opening in my home and it’s hopefully going to be something really special that people feel connected to and enjoy. I just think there’s room here for a really good butty shop with a fine-dining take on things.”
