Within a few months the neighbourhood seemed to have embraced the Rusty, and before we knew it the place was filling up night after night. We figured we’d better start serving some food to soak up the booze, so we dug out an old electric 4-hob range cooker that looked like it’d fallen arse end out of the 1940s and fired her up; she worked first time. Word spread, and we quickly realised that we’d need something more heavyweight to cope with demand… so we invested in a proper commercial kitchen. The rest is history: by the end of the second year, the Rusty Bicycle was firmly established at the heart of the neighbourhood, where it’s remained ever since. Just as we were starting to think about the next step, the Radcliffe Arms in Jericho came up for sale. It was run down and poorly maintained, but we put in a bid anyway, and to our surprise found ourselves with another pub… time to get busy again!
