Factory Floor Restaurant & Catering School,
ASpace2,
Unit 11, Campsie Business Park,
Derry,
BT47 3XX
028 7181 3607
facebook.com/factoryfloorrestaurant
The hashtags at the bottom of the Facebook post were powerful: #everypennyspentsupportspeoplewithadditionalneeds #trainingcateringschool #cateringtrainingskills #supportourtrainees #jobskillstraining #supportlocal #abilitynotdisability
They drew the eye. They pricked the conscience. They reminded me of my good fortune and the need to pay something back.
Well, up to a point they did, anyway. What I found too compelling to resist was the picture of the freshly baked scones (fruit and plain) above the hashtags. These I had to try. And if it meant having a satisfying lunch beforehand, who was I to argue?
This is the Factory Floor restaurant and café I’m talking about. It’s part of ASpace, a charity organisation dedicated to helping those with additional needs develop the skills and coping strategies to lead more motivated and fulfilling lives.
It’s based in an industrial estate on the outskirts of Derry. My brother had a tour of the place a while back. The facilities are wonderful, as are the staff. Still, I felt it incumbent upon me to investigate further. Or rather, I felt there was a good chance to pretend I was investigating further. Fill my face while making it look like I was helping others? Who checks the mouth of a gift horse like that?
So, my daughter and I headed north to Campsie and into the industrial estate. The ASpace building is big, gleaming, white – it feels a positive place already from the outside. That is reaffirmed when you get out of the car by the café entrance and the wonderful aroma of just-fried chips wafts across the car park.
The café is divided into two sections. Just inside the door is a light and bright space which overlooks the open kitchen. Further in, and there’s a bigger space, darker, and lit by tiny sparkling lights in netting just below the ceiling, with a disco ball thrown in for good measure.
The single-page menu offers a good selection of breakfasts (it opens Monday to Friday, 9.30am to 3pm) and a nice choice of hot meals, sandwiches and wraps for lunch. There’s nothing fancy. It’s sausage, beans, and chips or chicken goujons and chips, that kind of thing.
I went for the all-day breakfast. Whoever invented the all-day breakfast deserves a plaque on the wall of their house. Other meals don’t work at different times of the day. You’d never have soup first thing in the morning. No-one gets out of bed and thinks, I know what I fancy - chicken fried rice and curried sauce. Well, not unless they’re extremely hungover. But breakfast? That works. Even if it’s cereal, it works. Although, of course, we’re not talking cereal here. We’re talking the works.
A couple of lovely sausages, nicely crisp potato cake, a beautifully fried egg, two rashers of salty bacon, and half a tomato, as a tenth of your five a day. With a couple of slices of toast and a pot of tea – perfect.
My daughter opted for soup and a wrap. The soup was spot on – gently seasoned, with a sharp flavour of leek and sweet, deep potato – and just the right thickness. While the wheaten bread was disappointingly cold and a touch impenetrable – maybe not long out of the freezer – the wrap was lovely, with a generous filling and a good side of coleslaw.
Whoever invented the all-day breakfast deserves a plaque on the wall of their house
I couldn’t leave without one of those scones. It was fresh, with a slightly crunchy texture on the surface, and good and soft in the middle. The same could be said for the cookie. I don’t like white chocolate at all, but this wasn’t too sweet, and was deliciously chewy on the inside.
We hung around for a while after we’d finished, because it’s that kind of place: attentive, but relaxed, fun, plenty of laughter, although you know for sure that plenty of hard work is going on to make it so.
The name, Factory Floor, suggests something industrial and functional, purposeful, too. This is a place that produces: food, obviously, but people, too, equipped for a world they might otherwise struggle to find a route through. If you can help that process while at the same time tucking into some cracking nosh, what’s not to like?
The bill
- Hearty Fry, toast, tea - £7.50
- Potato and leek soup, wheaten bread - £3.50
- Tuna mayo wrap, coleslaw - £4.95
- Fruit scone - £2.00
- White chocolate cookie - £1.50
