The Big Bang Restaurants - Officially the finest bangers & mash in Britain

Max Mason, Proprietor

Three years ago I established the concept of a top quality Bangers and Mash restaurant using locally sourced, gourmet sausages and homemade pies, with a variety of great flavours of mash after experiencing too many chain restaurants where food is mass produced, characterless and like nothing you would ever choose to pay good money for.

As a "Foodie" and a geographer, my goal was to be able to create a small group of restaurants supporting local, small-scale independent suppliers, allowing customers to recognize a brand which supports and contributes to the local economy.

The key ingredients were clearly going to be the sausages. A great time was spent researching the best butchers and small-scale local farmers, narrowing them down by their reputations. I then approached my favourites, asking whether they would be keen to supply my new venture (at a price which was fair to them) and most seemed keen! I finally chose independent suppliers with the best tasting product and the most transparent chains of procurement. We are now proudly supplied by David Johns, Hedges, Kelmscott Manor and Vicars Game in Oxford. In Bristol, we are supplied by the Bristol Sausage Shop and Sheepdrove Organic.

The same sentiment also held true for the beers. I wanted to steer clear of the generic, big-brand tap lagers and bitters and focus on smaller, local brews with an abundance of taste and character. I sourced the darker ales for Oxford from the superb Hook Norton family-run brewery, and the lagers from the Cotswold Brewing Company. Both of these local brewers specialize in the sort of beers that greatly compliment the sausages on offer. For Bristol, I chose Bath Ales, Bristol Beer Factory and Thatchers Cider - all local breweries offering great quality products.

When deciding where the perfect site for the first restaurant would be, I was aware that Jericho had a number of excellent restaurants and bars, but they were all in the high price range. There wasn't anywhere that offered quality, filling plates of food to the lower end of the market, allowing the customer to move on to one of the bars to empty wallets and pockets! Walton Street had the added amusing advantage of providing me with my first restaurant on the same street as a Raymond Blanc restaurant - no small achievement!

The challenge for finding the best location in Bristol was in opening a significantly larger restaurant on a main road, but finding an area with a similar demographic. The site I eventually chose - at 46 Whiteladies Road - is one of the highest priced and busiest strips in the city, where it's essential to know exactly what you are doing. Let's see how it goes!

Before entering the Restaurant world in November 2004, I had spent eight years surveying the oceans of the world as a Hydrographic Officer in The Royal Navy. Once I had achieved everything I could have dreamed of - sailing the Indian Ocean, the Caribbean and spending 2 years working in the Antarctic - I decided to leave and do something completely different, allowing me as little time as possible to miss the life on the ocean wave. Setting up and then running a busy restaurant seemed to fit the bill perfectly.

In 2005, Restaurant Magazine awarded us one of their Top Ten Dishes in Britain for our Oxford Sausage, served over a carrot and swede mash. Now in 2007, we are lucky enough to have been shortlisted again – this time for our Pork and Apple Sausages, served over a creamed mash. Both are very much worth trying out. Incidentally, we were also noted in 'The Independent' as the third best place in Britain to eat for under £50. I'm quite proud of these achievements, having only been in the business for a mere three years. I strongly believe in everything we serve, supporting local whenever possible. My aim is to prove that you can operate successfully, while behaving responsibly and ethically.

It is highly satisfying to serve local, basic British food cooked well and served with a little style. The following in Oxford has grown tremendously and the Bristol restaurant looks set to follow in its footsteps, becoming known for serving quality, ethical, locally sourced food at a very decent price. It's been a tremendous journey and yet I only feel like I've taken the very first steps. 

Next time you eat in a restaurant, ask your server where your food came from. Then give a thought to the farmer or the brewer just down the road. Come and see us, try our food, and see what all fuss is about!