Tigellae at the Harewood: All you need to know!

In April 2019, we opened our first restaurant at The Harewood Arms, now the only remaining pub in Broadbottom, where I grew up.

Like us, they enjoy making things from scratch – they brew their own cask ales and craft beers and have been rewarded for their efforts, with regional CAMRA prizes under their belt and an award for Pub of the Year for the High Peak and Cheshire East. 

We first started taking The Vanstaurant to The Harewood Arms in 2015, and many locals have followed our adventures since the very start. Our friend on the right in the picture below is a big fan of our handmade, traditional lasagne!

In September 2018, after a very busy summer, we were asked by the landlord about returning to the pub after several months working on other projects. We had lots of ideas for new menus and wanted to bring some Italian favourites to the Harewood.

From our first day back at the pub, the food was an instant success. So much so that, after just a few months, we were in talks about taking over the kitchen on a permanent basis.

In winter 2019, we set about cleaning and refurbishing the kitchen. It was a lot of hard work, but in April 2019 we were finally ready to open the doors of our first ever restaurant.

Our first day was extremely busy – it was a beautifully sunny Easter Sunday! – and after such a great start we couldn’t wait to share more new dishes with everyone. We started to cure our own meats, make risotto dishes, and finally serve up some beautiful tigelle bread!

For years, we had also searched for a sensible way to make pizza. With the help of our friends at Jack Badger in Glossop, we constructed a wooden kiosk outside the Harewood, which houses an oven for making delicious, Roman-style wood-fired pizza. The kiosk opened in July 2019 and the pizza is still hugely popular to this day!

To get some great photos of our food, in October 2019 we had a photoshoot with the lovely Anya, who took wonderful pictures of our pasta with home-smoked salmon, wood-fired Diavola pizza with homemade spicy sausage, and sharing boards with home-cured meats and our famous bread.

In autumn 2019, we finally found some time to redecorate the restaurant room! We painted the walls in just 3 days, and Giordano worked especially hard on printing and framing photos of our food and all of our favourite adventures. Here he is hanging one of Anya’s photos in the restaurant!

In March 2020, the pandemic forced us to close our little restaurant at the pub. During the first couple of months of lockdown, we started posting recipes to the blog and did some foraging for ingredients, something we’d never tried before! My all-time favourite lockdown recipe is for wild garlic pesto, which you can find here.

By May 2020, we felt it was safe enough to re-open our kiosk as a takeaway only on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. We were inundated with orders for the first few weeks, and at the beginning it was difficult to keep up! Many of our customers got to know us and our pizza during this time, and we made a lot of Tigellae friends who are still regulars at the kiosk to this day.

The Harewood Arms re-opened in mid-May 2021, meaning that we could finally serve pizza in the pub again! For many reasons, we decided not to re-open our restaurant, not least because the pizza had become so popular by this point that we couldn’t revert back to just one day a week! Now, our customers can eat in the pub or take their pizzas home, and we’re still meeting new people all the time. Thank you so much for all of your support, now and always.

For those of you finding out about our kiosk for the first time, we’ve done our best to answer any questions you might have below. If you’d like to know more, please just get in touch!

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

1) When is your pizza kiosk open?

Our kiosk is open at the Harewood Arms in Broadbottom (postcode SK14 6AX) every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 5pm to 9pm.

2) How do I pre-order?

You can book with Laura on 07503078288, or send us a message via our Facebook page.

3) Can I just turn up to order my pizza?

You can, but we often have some long waiting times during peak hours. We’ll always let you know roughly how long it might take to have your order ready when you come to the kiosk.

4) Why don’t you make tiramisu anymore?

Since the UK left the EU, we can no longer buy the mascarpone we’d need to make it in the same quantities. If we ever find the time to make it again as a one-off summer special, we will!

5) Where can I find your menu?

You can find it on our website by clicking on this link.

6) Do you do takeaway?

Absolutely! Just call Laura on 07503078288 and we’ll check our slots for takeaway.

7) Can I take my pizza in the pub?

Of course! Just come to the kiosk to order and pay, and Laura will bring it inside for you when it’s ready.

8) Do you do gluten-free and/or vegan cheese?

Yes, we do! We have a supply of 9″ BFree gluten-free pizza bases and vegan cheese at the kiosk. Please be aware that we make everything in the same oven, though.

Hope to see you at the Harewood soon!

A presto!

Laura