‘Re-opening Eastbourne branch is TOP of our priority list’

The Bok Shop, which was founded in Brighton in 2017, has been very popular in Eastbourne since it opened in the Beacon in December 2019.

Between mid-October and mid-January the Hadouken Burger Combo from The Bok Shop was the third-most ordered dish from Deliveroo in Eastbourne but unfortunately the restaurant decided to temporarily close.

The Bok Shop, which was inspired by London-style fried chicken culture, has other restaurants in Brighton and South Croydon but now they are hoping to open 10 new sites in the next two years after a £1.2m backing from a private equity group.

Co-founder Jamie O’Mara said, “We never in our wildest dreams thought that we would be sharing what we created at our little shop in Brighton with the rest of the U.K.

“It’s been a hard slog filled with failures and success’, amplified by the pandemic, but all in the name of growth.

“Plans are underway to start fitting out our new unit in Southampton’s West Quay, however re-opening our Eastbourne branch is TOP of our priority list.

“A lot of our Easbtourne customers have been asking on socials when we will be re-opening and also are curious as to why we decided to temporarily close.

“We were absolutely overwhelmed with the response to the launch of our ‘Cluck & Collect’ and delivery service and the demand for takeaway and delivery orders each week was huge! But sadly it just wasn’t enough to sustain such a big restaurant unit.

“The high costs of the unit are designed to work in correlation with high footfall from the centre and with no footfall at all we made the decision to close until eat-in restrictions are lifted.

“More importantly, the extra costs of delivering food are astronomical; extra packaging, extra labour costs on drivers, fuel, extremely high commission from the corporate delivery platforms.

“All of these factors lead to our decision to temporarily close until we can welcome the good people of Eastbourne back into our restaurant to eat-in again.”

If you would like to read about Eastbourne’s takeaway trends over lockdown click here.