Inside the new Thai restaurant that's now open inside an Isle of Man pub

Transcript

00:00I'm Nigel, I'm the general manager here and I joined O'Call's in November.

00:04And Nigel, tell us, this is quite a new set-off here now, I've walked in, it's a different horse and plough.

00:08Tell us how it's gone and how this all came about.

00:11Yeah, well, it's a phone call from the boss to say, look, you know, we knew that what was happening down at 1886

00:17with the Thai food coming out of there, yeah, they approached my boss and obviously the next minute I get a phone call,

00:24how would you like to have a Thai restaurant in here?

00:28Yeah, and I thought, well, that's a wonderful idea because it's a cuisine that's on point

00:33and people tend to have craving it, so it's got a great reputation, so we could not have an opportunity to take it on.

00:39Absolutely, and since the news has come out, the reaction's been really good, hasn't it?

00:43Yeah, yeah, social media's going to light. We're trying to do a little bit of a soft launch because we don't know how mad it's going to be,

00:48but yeah, it's great, we've had a great response, a lot of positivity and we have the team coming over from Thai Thai,

00:57so they're a great bunch and I've worked closely with them and their knowledge is exemplary,

01:02so I've had my own Thai businesses before in the UK, over and across, so I know how it works and yeah, they're good.

01:11And now it's all set up and now you're open, how's the process been to get it to this point?

01:16Manic, I'd say. Nine days to pull a restaurant together and to decor and to do everything.

01:21Yeah, it's been crazy, but you know, Ocals have got a great team, I'm very lucky to have the support we've got

01:27and we just, yeah, it's going to be quite easy, you know, having a good support network really makes a difference.

01:32And just finally, there might be some people around here who know the horse and plough from what it was previously,

01:37who might be a bit concerned about the changes, can you tell them what they can still expect when they walk in?

01:40Yeah, so the pub won't change, you know, the pub is the pub, we're still going to do our normal thing, the pub quizzes and do the events.

01:48It's the cuisine, it's not pub food anymore, it is going to be Thai food, it's very, very difficult to do a multi-cuisine

01:54and we've got some great pubs, you know, Ocals have got some great, great places to eat,

01:59you've only got to look at the new set up at the Cat with No Tow, it's phenomenal and that's been very successful.

02:04So there are options around, not too far away, we're not a massive island, so we're just making sure we're saving Thai Thai

02:10and bringing something a little bit different to the island.