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Closing of Bristol RestaurantLadies and Gentlemen, It is with unprecedented regret that I announce the closing of the Bristol restaurant. I am afraid that having taken on such a big site in such a prime position at a time when the economy wasn’t looking too rosy, coupled with a painful, slow recovering broken ankle amongst other complications, meant that my finite pot of money ran dry far too quickly to allow the venture to spread it’s wings. I am grateful for all of the positive feedback that I’ve received from diners, assuring me that ethics, price, flavour and style were all utterly correct. It’s unfortunate that the very chain restaurants that The Big Bang Bristol was trying to battle are probably the only ones with pockets deep enough to make a go of such a large space these days. The Oxford restaurant continues to be one of the most popular places in the city, so if the craving for ethical, locally sourced Bangers and Mash gets too much, it would be great to see you there - it’s not that far of a drive. My thanks for your custom and encouragement. Please do try to frequent independent traders and restaurants, rather than ghastly chains. We are lucky that Whiteladies Road has a number of fine places, including Planet Pizza, Bar Humbug, Quartier Vert and the spectacular Picture House. Head on over to Casamia in Westbury on Trym if you ever get the chance, for one of the best meals you could ever experience and add more power to their elbow. It’s a gem that Bristol should never be allowed to lose - excellent enough to rival Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck. I hope to cross paths with some of you in the future, but for the time being I am leaving Bristol to nurse some wounds!
May MorningMay Day is upon us again and we have teamed up with the superb new radio station Jack FM (who are now broadcasting spectacular tunes across Oxfordshire) to offer a May Day breakfast. Come try our "Breakfast Banger" - an amazing invention of a sausage containing bacon, hard-boiled egg, mushroom, tomato and even the humble baked bean. If you would like to book a May Day breakfast of Bangers and a Bloody Mary, we shall be open from 6am but will have limited space. Ring Lucy on 01865 511441 or click here to book your spot. Awards Evening at the House of Lords
Pictured on left is Dr Evan Harris (the Member Parliament for Oxford West and Abingdon), Max Mason (owner of The Big Bang Restaurants), Lucy Wendon (manager of The Big Bang Oxford), and Simon Hart (Chief Executive of Countryside Alliance). We are extremely pleased and flattered to be recognized for this award. To see the official website of the Best Rural Retailer awards, including the other winners, click here.
Winner: Anti-Valentine's Day Poem CompetitionWe received a lot of really creative entries this year and it was tough to choose, but we did choose a winner in the end. Congratulations to A. Pirate for the winning entry below: Send me no cards; please spare me from cupid, Don’t speak to me in your sickly-sweet rhymes, Bring me no roses, white, pink or red. Don’t leave me chocolates, shell-shaped or not, Take me for no loving walks by the Isis, Buy me no drinks, no gin and no tonic, If, on this Thursday, you make my teeth gnash, ~ A. Pirate --- Last year's winner: Do they have a day each year, ---- Start sharpening your quills for next year's competition!
Anti-Valentine's Day Poem CompetitionFor the second year in a row, The Big Bang is running our popular Anti-Valentine's Day poem competition. The winning entries from Oxford and Bristol will receive dinner for 6 on or around Valentine's Day. To enter, or for more details, click here.
Winner - Best Local Food!
Sara Rutherford, Regional Director for the South and leader of the local judging panel says: “This wonderful restaurant offers nothing but sausages from the local area, ensuring that food miles are reduced to a minimum, and that each time a customer dines there, they are supporting local suppliers. Their food is sourced from within a 20 mile radius and their message is focussed on buying local - their tag line is 'smile you're buying local'. They really support local farming and production, and their carbon footprint is tiny.” Thank you to everyone who voted for us! To see the official website, including the other winners, click here.
New Year's EveThe Big Bang would like to help you celebrate the coming of 2008 with great food and loads of bubbly. The Oxford restaurant will be serving the normal menu, although we'll have loads of sparkling stuff in stock, so you can celebrate in style. The Bristol restaurant is offering a 5 course fandango of sausage-based spectacles for only £25.00 - Cold meat platters, cucumber and mint sorbet, your choice of any 2 sausages from the menu over delicious creamed mash, fine desserts and an English cheese platter with sparkling wine at Midnight. Please call 01179 239212 for bookings, or click here.
Sizzling Singles Supper
The Big Bang Celebrates the 10th Annual British Sausage Week in styleToday sees the start of the 10th Annual British Sausage week, a celebration of the food typical to Great Britain. Max Mason at The Big Bang on Walton Street, Jericho, has decided to mark the celebration with a merging of British cuisines – The Curry and the more traditionally regarded Bangers and Mash, in a dish that will be served at the restaurant throughout the week. At the end of the week, the dish will be rated by Phil Tufnell - amongst other dishes of Bangers and Mash - in a celebration in Bristol, where the newest Big Bang is situated. Click here to read more...
Breaking News!Restaurant Magazine has listed us as a finalist in The Top 10 Dishes in Britain Awards 2007! Fingers crossed!!!
Press Releases
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We were recently awarded the Best Rural Retailer for 2007 for the South of England in the Best Local Food category. Max and Lucy of The Big Bang attended the Countryside Alliance awards evening at the House of Lords. 
We are very pleased to announce that The Big Bang Oxford has been awarded the Best Rural Retailer for 2007 for the South of England in the Best Local Food category! 
Oxfordshires singles (in their 30s-50s) have an opportunity to get connected at the Sizzling Singles Supper, being held at The Big Bang Oxford. This event will bring together 50 single people to have a fun evening, enjoy good quality local food and raise money for The Hunger Project to empower women and men across the world to end their own hunger. Unlike other events for single people, this one is about combining a love for good quality, local produce (the majority of The Big Bang’s produce is sourced within 20 miles of the restaurant) and contributing to an entrepreneurial organisation called The Hunger Project, which invests in peoples potential enabling them to overcome hunger and poverty. There’ll be a charity auction on the evening with items such as dinner for 2 at a variety of local restaurants, pamper sessions (for both the women and men), bespoke jewellery and fine wine. 7.30 pm on 24th November.  |
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Big Bang to Arrange a Party in a Brewery
Big Bang restaurant owner Max Mason had spent so long being told that he didn't have the skills to organise a p*ss-up in a brewery, let alone run his own restaurant, so he has decided to go ahead and do just that!
Every year, in the first weekend of August he has arranged the party as if to try to encourage people to have a go at achieving their dreams. He says "I had spent so many years with different plans, yet had been talked out of them by so many people, afraid to take the first step on their own, that this party is a way of encouraging people to have the courage of their convictions."
This year it is being held at the Cotswold Brewing Company in the heart of the Cotswolds, where for just £30 a head, he organises all the lager that guests want, all the food that they desire from the Big Bang Barbecue and live music, this year provided by a four piece band, with the renowned Zena James singing. Transport is arranged both from and back to Oxford and the evening proves to be a great hit every year.
He adds that the well known saying about organising a certain type of party in a brewery is rather unfair, as being able to organise such an affair for up to 300 people is a nerve racking challenge, trying to ensure that nothing gets forgotten for the night!
Bookings can be taken through email or by phone: 01865 511441.
04 August 2007
Bus leaves from outside Taylor's Deli on St. Giles at 7pm
£30 per person - all you can eat and drink plus live music and transportation
The Baby Bang
The Big Bang has, as a result of continued demands, ventured into outdoor catering in style, with the birth of the Baby Bang – a mobile BBQ platform which can be found at Cornbury Festival, Charlbury Riverside Festival, Gay Pride Oxford (for which we are already receiving any number of double entendre comments), The Cowley Road Carnival and The Big Bang Round Table Fireworks Display in South Parks.
The Baby Bang is available for private hire, for outdoor catering, for parties or for festivals throughout the year – Contact thebabybang@thebigbangoxford.co.uk for details and bookings.
Bumps
Max and the crew from The Big Bang will be on the river bank for Bumps this year, selling their trademark Full English Sausage which contains the full array of ingredients that you would expect to find in an English Breakfast – sausage meat, chopped bacon, hard boiled egg, black pudding, mushrooms, tomato and even the humble baked bean. The sausage is being promoted in conjunction with Oxford’s FM 107.9 radio station to raise money for charity and promote the great British Breakfast!
May Day Morning
Max and others from The Big Bang are to be found out bright and early on May Day morning in residence at The Cape of Good Hope on the Plain, selling their trademark Full English Breakfast fiasco sausage in conjunction with Oxford’s FM 107.9 radio station. The sausage was created by Max to raise money for charity and to support a FM 107.9 cause to make their DJ’s more famous across Oxford. The breakfast fiasco DJs Adam and Anna will be helping Big Bang staff to sell the sausages to those attending the May Day morning celebrations whilst staff at The Cape of Good Hope will be selling teas and coffees to those awaiting the dawn chorus.
Big Bang Makes Big Ethical Noise
Just Ask Ethical CLA Campaign
We have grown into a nation who are prepared to pay a premium for the quality of soil that a vegetable was grown in and to know whether an animal has led a happy life before being slaughtered, so we should be readily prepared to ensure that food we eat in our restaurants is helping to reinforce the strength of British producers and is also traveling the shortest possible distance before reaching our plates.
The Countryside Landowners Association have taken the lead with a nationwide campaign launched by the Prime Minister during a Downing Street ceremony in January, and in Oxfordshire, where Max Mason and staff at The Big Bang have led the way for the county. The campaign, coinciding with the CLA's centenary year will, says the CLA, help raise awareness in restaurants, pubs and other food outlets that there is now a demand and preference for locally sourced, quality British food.
Just Ask is aimed at encouraging consumers to ask where the food on their plate comes from whenever they'’re out for a meal - whether in a hotel, restaurant, pub, canteen or roadside café. CLA South East regional director, Rupert Ashby, said: "British food is better for the environment, better for animal welfare and ensures that local farms and producers have a future, which is why we are keen to gain the support of as many South East food businesses as possible. We are delighted to have The Big Bang on board with this. This is just the sort of business which shows that excellent food and a healthy British farming sector go hand-in-hand".
Max comments that "the idea behind the Big Bang came from a profound dislike of chain restaurants and the way food is centrally, mass procured, processed in another location, then shipped to a number of cloned, glass boxed restaurants nationwide". The Big Bang ethos has always been to source everything practicable from within a 20 mile radius, ensuring they achieve the ethical higher ground over chain restaurants, and are also able to support local suppliers and demonstrate the quality of our local produce in serving the best of British cuisine.
To read more about this campaign, click here to download the press release.
The Big Bang Sponsors Luminox
March 15 - 17
The Big Bang has come on board as a sponsor of Luminox, one of the most exciting visual events of Oxfordshire 2007, the county's year-long millennium celebration. Luminox is a spectacular fire installation in Oxford's historic Broad Street created by renowned French performance company Carabosse, who have cast their magic in cities all over the world.
Luminox will feature fire sculptures plus a giant pendulum made by local artist Ted Dewan which will swing 1000 times each evening to symbolise the passing of the years. There will also be live music coordinated by Oxford Contemporary Music and performed from a specially created wrought iron bandstand.
The evening event, which is the highlight of Oxfordshire 2007's spring season, runs from March 15 to 17 and is free, although a £1 voluntary contribution is invited. Max Mason, owner of The Big Bang said: "Luminox celebrates all that is special about 2007 - and we at The Big Bang applaud creativity in all its forms.
"We believe in getting involved with the life of our community – as a local business we source local products and we support Oxford in many different ways."
Visitors to Luminox are invited to The Big Bang after the show where they will receive 10% off their meal if they produce a Luminox programme.
Click here to read more Big Bang News from our archive...
©2006-2008 The Big Bang. All Rights Reserved.
{Alissa J. Robinson}