00:16Hello and welcome to Made in Kent live on KMTV, where we explore the world of businesses and
00:22creators throughout the county. I'm Alia Pritchard and today we're looking into all
00:26things Seaside. From the seashore to local stores we want to explore all that
00:30Kent's coastal businesses have to offer. To find out which Seaside businesses are
00:34the favourites of Kent locals, we asked the people of Ramsgate. Let's see what
00:38they had to say. The businesses that I feel make a Seaside town is definitely
00:42coffee shops. I've explored quite a lot and you always get a great customer
00:46service and a really good latte. We're very lucky here in that we've got a lot of
00:52seaside cafes, restaurants, bars, it's a very vibrant area to live in. Restaurants,
01:02cafes, places where you can sit close to the sea. Well you've got your usual
01:06fish and chips and ice cream and the sort of kiss me cat quick sort of hat places
01:11and where you can get some nets and things for crabbing and that sort of
01:14stuff so yeah I think that's what most visitors are looking for. Yeah also
01:18restaurants and also the little gift jobs. I personally like the beach in the
01:24winter and I just like to grab a coffee on the seafront somewhere and just take
01:29it along the beach with me. I think it's important to have facilities for younger
01:33children as well so you've got the kiosk providing ice creams and drinks and of
01:38course the traditional fish and chips and candy floss. There's the amusement
01:43arcade as well which caters for them and then for the teenage set there's bands
01:49playing regularly in the local public houses. Well as we've just heard ice cream is a
01:56staple to the British seaside experience not only for the array of flavours but
02:00also to overcome the heat. Whitstable High Street is heavily populated by ice cream
02:04parlours so our reporters Joel Fletcher and Lottie Mason went to get the inside
02:08scoop into a particularly unique one that's been around for a decade. Let's
02:12take a look. Vanilla, chocolate, mint choc chip and strawberry. These are flavours
02:17that you would imagine to find in an ice cream parlour along Whitstable High
02:21Street. But this isn't just your runner-per-mill ice cream shop. Let's find
02:24out what makes friends special. Probably absolutely everything. Our menu changes very
02:29seasonally so you know the moment we have strawberries we'll have strawberries for five
02:33months and there won't be another strawberry around. During the winter we have a lot of
02:36you know the winter fruit which is not very many but on vegetables. During the summer
02:40it's all about the local berries. We don't really make any classic flavours.
02:44Everything is made from a very much like a chef perspective so think outside the box
02:48but things that work really well always. It has to be delicious but it has to be
02:52creative because life's too short for boring ice cream and there's enough of it
02:56around. Phil also told us about how he broke into the speciality ice cream
03:00business. I was working full-time in a restaurant and since then all I did was work
03:05as a chef all the way through and most places I worked out were very small and
03:09we made all everything from scratch including ice cream and about 10 years
03:12ago me and my wife decided it would be a fun side project to open up an ice cream
03:16shop which is what we did and then it has evolved dramatically since then but ten
03:22years later I'm no longer working in the kitchen of a restaurant I'm now working in the kitchen of an
03:26ice cream shop.
03:27It's really fun. Ice cream is really, it's a really enjoyable thing to make.
03:31There's the instant gratification, people walk in, they have ice cream, they're automatically
03:34happy so that's really nice. It might be raining right now in Wittsville but it's the
03:38beginning of summer. Pride marks for ice cream. So how important really is bad weather
03:43for this line of business? It's very seasonal obviously kind of you know we do need the
03:48warmth or just lack of rain really. We do a lot of wholesale so that kind of ticks
03:52over with restaurants and kind of farm shops and small cafes so that's always
03:57kind of happy in the winter because people want ice cream to take home. They
04:00don't want to go out and have ice cream in a cone when it's raining.
04:02Whitstable has one of the most independent high streets in Britain with over 92% of
04:07shops and businesses being locally owned and independent. So how has Bears
04:10integrated into the seaside high street? We've been really well received by the
04:15local community and by the kind of you know the tourists as well. It's one of those places where
04:20people come of all ages and you can it is one of those things that people like all
04:24the way through from being a kid all the way through to being an old person.
04:27People come in they have a little chat sometimes just grab and go but it's that
04:30it's that place of being together so it makes sense on the on the seaside but it
04:35makes sense everywhere. You know I think every everywhere needs a good ice cream shop.
04:39Lottie Mason and Joel Fletcher for CAME TV in Whitstable.
04:44Well we would be hard-pressed not to include a cafe or two down the coast after hearing from
04:48the Ramsgate locals. So we sent one of our reporters to a particularly unique
04:52location in Margate the bus cafe as well as one of us one of their suppliers and
04:57neighbor Garage Coffee. We wanted to find out how different businesses can
05:00operate and support each other by the sea. Let's take a look now with our reporter
05:04Chloe Smith. The rising popularity of seaside towns brings a wide variety of
05:09unique businesses to the coast including a bus by the sea converted into a fully
05:13functional cafe. I'm here in slightly sunnier Margate to visit the bus cafe here on the
05:17seafront. Let's go see what it's all about. This bus didn't want to stay in its lane but
05:21once took you from A to B now takes you from Margate's Beach to breakfast. I
05:27spoke with one of the owners who told us all about their unique coastal cafe.
05:30Well it's a double-decker bus based on the Margate's seafront as you can see and we
05:35are an award-winning bus cafe actually we're award-winning breakfast cafe. We've
05:40been operating for 10 years and with this double-decker she's 46 years old and I could
05:46pop a vintage little bus. Looking into initially renting somewhere but the rents
05:51were pretty high for especially around this area and one of my friends was
05:55selling her bus so we thought why don't we convert a bus into a cafe. While the
06:02bus cafe certainly stands out along the coast, right next door you'll find one of
06:05the branches of Garage Coffee, a specialty roasters coffee brand based here in Kent
06:09who not only supplies their coffee to the bus cafe but also to coffee lovers
06:13across the county. I spoke with one of their baristas about their branch here at
06:16Margate Beach. Well when it's like fake and hot unlike today there's queues literally
06:21all the way to the seawall. Apart from the obvious which is all the coffees that we do
06:26which would be speciality coffee which is high grade drinks. We also offer like scoops of
06:34gelato and we also offer waffles. So you've got the classic waffle with ice and sugar and cinnamon
06:40sugar and then you can also have that with our ice cream as well. But what draws people to the
06:45seaside? It's nice that we can in the summer we we occasionally if we could have time we'll go out
06:50and have a swim so it's really lovely it's a nice it's a nice place to work yeah. Families are
06:55probably the
06:55most I would say the strongest demographic that we have because you've got lots of little kids
07:00that I mean that it blows their minds you know where they come you see them where they come in
07:04and they can't quite understand it's a bus and it's a cafe at the same time and they get really
07:08excited so that's actually really rewarding. The view mainly but like obviously the people are nice
07:14and it's this good vibe like working by the beach like everyone gets on like we provide them coffee
07:20they provide us lunch and then everyone's just sort of partying outside it's a good vibe. With such a
07:27unique environment what are some of the challenges that come with operating and
07:30inside a bus? In the kitchen especially we have with there's a lot of things that we had to navigate
07:36we've had to custom build everything ourselves we can't just pick off a catalogue and just hope
07:41they fit we had to make everything but all of the upstairs here is the original bus seats and the
07:47legs are all the original handrails so we wanted to keep everything as original as possible. Chloe
07:52Smith for KMTV in Margate. And finally let's take a moment to delve into some figures and statistics
07:59surrounding Kent's seaside and coastal towns and the businesses that keep them busy. Joining me
08:05this week to bring us the deep dive is Kari Damani.
08:16So Kari we know that the theme this week is the seaside and we're looking at a number of food
08:21and
08:21beverage businesses but what else does the seaside have to offer? Well Kent is one of the most popular
08:26counties for seaside towns in the UK due to its immensely rich history, number of activities and
08:34unique businesses. There are many distinctive places to visit within Kent such as Dreamland in Margate,
08:41Deal Castle and the Turner Contemporary in Margate. There's a large variety of harbour markets where you
08:47can go to enjoy foods and explore independent businesses such as the ones in Wichstable. Along with the
08:55creative quarter of Folkestone, a spot championing many independent studios, galleries, makers and workshops.
09:05And we know that in the summertime seasides can be a bit of an attractive spot for tourists and locals
09:10alike. How does this
09:12translate into the figures? Well the statistics show from the Kent County Council state that there
09:18were 6,045 tourism related enterprises in Kent in 2025 with which accounted for 9.2% of all enterprises
09:29in
09:30the county. They also found that the highest proportion of tourism enterprises can be found in the coastal
09:36areas of Fanet, Dover, Canterbury, Folkestone and Hife, which suggests that seaside and coastal areas have the
09:45highest proportion of tourism in the county. According to Fanet District Council, 4.1 million day visitors
09:53visited Fanet and spent £163 million. There were also about 315,000 domestic visitors along with
10:05171,300 visitors who stayed overnight to enjoy the seaside. And for those who are travelling around
10:13Kent either for the first time or as a staycation, what are some of the most significant seaside landmarks
10:20in Kent? Well first there are the white cliffs of Dover towering over the ocean. You can find guided walks
10:26around the cliffs and nearby lighthouse to explore the local area. You can also find heritage
10:33open days at Dover Castle. Not only are there heritage sites but also vintage book fairs, plenty of cafes
10:43and opportunities to create amazing memories with family and friends. There's also Crab and Winkle
10:49Way in which the ball features what was one of the first passenger railways in the world, opening in 1830
10:57city with steam powered trains that took people directly to the beach. Now the path says is a nice long
11:04walking
11:05and cycling route with detours for people to exercise on that way to the beach and seaside attractions.
11:22Well you've been watching Made in Kent live on KMTV and there's more news made just for Kent throughout
11:27the evening. And don't forget you can always keep up to date with the latest news across your county
11:31by logging on to KMTV.co.uk. But for now that's all we have time for. Goodbye and thank you.
11:37Thank you so much for joining us today.
Comments