Mum's restaurant with everchanging menu created 'by accident'

A mum created an ever changing Liverpool restaurant when she was a 'bit bored'. Jess Gartland, 34, from Vauxhall, took an interest in cooking when she moved out of her childhood home in her early twenties.

Speaking to the ECHO, Jess said: “I was obsessed with reading cooking books. I've got thousands at home. Every weekend, I would just sit with a cup of tea and read through them all. I thought I would just take the leap into kitchens.”

Jess had a friend who worked at the now-closed Oktopus restaurant on Hardman Street and asked for a job there herself. She said: “I already had that interest in food and cooking for myself.

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“I would peel potatoes and cut root vegetables, so much so that I got carpal tunnel because I was doing the same thing day in, day out.” Carpal tunnel syndrome is pressure on a nerve in your wrist. It causes tingling, numbness and pain in your hand and fingers. Nevertheless, Jess loved the excitement of cooking and working in a kitchen.

Jess, who now lives in Toxteth with her husband Marc and daughter Marco, said: “It was one of my favourite jobs. I worked my way up whilst I was there, from doing all the jobs nobody wants to do, to cooking on the pass on a Saturday night, which was amazing.”

Later, Jess moved to award-winning restaurant Belzan on Smithdown Road as a sous chef, managing members of the kitchen staff which she also enjoyed, and spent time working at a Copenhagen bakery seen on hit TV series The Bear. However, the covid lockdown forced Belzan and all other restaurants to close, during which Jess became restless and came up with an idea for a new venture called Bakesale.

Jess said: “We got furloughed and I got a bit bored. I put a little menu together of about four things, like a piece of cake and focaccia, and posted it on Instagram to make for family and friends.

“I would just bake out of my kitchen. I'd spend the whole week baking it and then I think I would deliver it on like maybe a Friday or a Monday. It kind of snowballed after that, and we got more and more orders. With Belzan, I was really lucky that they were really supportive.

“When I wasn't furloughed, I would do everything on my day off. I would work seven days a week because I loved it, and it was exciting to me. I’d finish a shift at midnight on a Saturday, and then I would go home and start baking for the next day.”

Eventually, Jess made the decision to leave Belzan to work on Bakesale full-time. It moved around various locations such as independent café Chapters of Us and live music venue Sotto, selling unique offerings such as deep-fried lasagne sandwiches until a space came up on Berry Street in Chinatown.

Jess said: “It was like a travelling circus of sandwiches. I would just move from space to space. This is where we've been for the past year. It's really nice because we've got a nice shop front and it's a nice space where people can sit and showcase what we do.”

Bakesale has an ever changing menu, which Jess claims is part of its appeal. She said: “We change our sandwiches either daily or weekly. We've never really got the same menu on for a month at a time, so I think that's what keeps it interesting for people. People like to see what else we're doing with it. We don't put traditional fillings in our sandwiches.”

Nevertheless, the restaurant offers a lot more than unique butties. Jess said: “We do get a lot of focus on our sandwiches. I would love people to know that we serve an amazing breakfast in the morning. We do good coffee.

“We’re really passionate about using traceable ingredients, ingredients that don’t contain any pesticides - things that people don't really think about, but are super important to the world and your health. We use everything we can locally.”

Despite not particularly planning for it, Jess is happy with how Bakesale is doing. She said: “My whole aim for Bakesale is just to not take ourselves too seriously, to be silly with it and keep it delicious.

"Changing it all the time keeps me excited and interested in it. I can't believe it's come this far to be honest. I couldn't have done it without my husband who’s carried me through it all.”

“It wasn't until I was about 24, 25 that I started working in kitchens. Then I've kind of worked my way from the bottom until I got to the point where I was like, yeah, I can do this, I can open my own places.

“Bakesale kind of happened by accident. I didn’t put that menu out on Instagram and thought, I'm going to have a shop one day. But I've gone with it and why not? We'll try it and we're still here.”