🟡Part 1: The Return
What inspired Farmhouse Kitchen to return to Southport FC under this new era?
Our return to Southport FC was due to the the feedback from fans of we miss you, we want you to come back, we miss your sausage rolls, and as well the positive attitude of Dave and Kieran, and the new team at Southport FC.
How does it feel to be back at Haig Avenue, serving the fans once again?
Its exciting, my team have missed the atmosphere, we run three busy shops and businesses but there’s nothing like the rush of a football crowd, when you’ve got that intense couple of thousand fans at you, all at the same time.
What’s changed most at the club since you were last here, and what excites you the most about the direction it’s heading?
We’ve seen a lot of money spent in the Hospitality Lounge and in the kitchen, we’ve seen the new marquee – that looks fantastic. The fact that Dave and Kieran are spending money at the ground and they don’t seem to be scared of investing, that’s the one thing that the club needs, is as much investment as possible.
What made you feel now was the right time to return and become part of the SFC journey?
The first time we joined the club, the previous caterer had walked away, and we turned it around in a short time back in 2022, and it’ll be the same this year. We went in on the Wednesday for a quick chat with Elliot and by the Friday we were signing contracts and we were training with Southport FC on the Tuesday! As for the right time, you just go with the opportunity, and when it comes knocking we answer the call.
🟡Part 2: The Partnership
What does this partnership mean to you as a local, award winning pie-makers?
Being award winning pie makers, there’s many categories that we can enter, we are the champion fish pie maker, we are the champion fish and chip shop pie maker, we are the second best in the country for meat and potato, we are one of the fifth best with the steak and ale, we are second best for chicken ham and mushroom. For us, we want to get Southport FC a champion pie. We already have for Southport junior football club, we have a bronze meat and potato. By March 2026, we want to be walking away with a champion best football club pie in the country, and by working with SFC we can do that, because we’re selling the pies to the fans, were selling the pies to the club, we can enter that category again this year and for us it’s all about expansion, word of mouth feedback, and how good the fans receive our food. The reputation always grows because we we try our best, and do our best!
How important is it for you to support and be a part of the local community through football?
For us, we are a community based business, so we strongly try and support as many charities and as many fundraisers as we can, as a business we don’t jump and shout about it, we keep it quite discreet and quite professional, we have been supported a lot through lockdown by the local community and the people of Southport, and our surrounding area in High Park and Churchtown, Birkdale and Ainsdale, and for us we like to give back and we like to be part of a community. It’s what it’s about. Money makes money, so when there’s a business in the area doing well it can give back out to the little charity fundraisers, for the local primary school. We do a tab system on the wall, where if you come upon hard times you can pop in and we have a code where you do an order for a few items and you tell us it goes on the tab, we have a community fundraised-based tab, so we’ll try our best and feed where we can. The local primary school at the bottom of our road – David Bishop Primary – every Christmas we support 10 families with Christmas dinners so nobody goes without, because we know how hard it can be for families with young kids or any age, to do Christmas presents and everything like that so yeah, communities are big thing for us.
What can fans expect from matchday food offerings this season?
As the weather changes and we enter new seasons, we’ll be bringing in different items, at the minute we’re concentrating on our core range, just so I can get the team retrained, and get us all back up to speed, and that will be our award winning pies, including a steak and ale, meat and potato, chicken ham and mushroom, and our vegetarian option of potato dauphinoise, they can all be served with mashed potato, peas, and gravy. We’ll also be doing hot dogs, good quality hand made rump steak burgers, as well as our sausage rolls. We’re going to be adding on specials for certain matches such as Scouse, we’ll throw on a Hot Pot sometimes, Chilli Con Carne with Jacket Potatoes, soup, we’re open for feedback on the menus – loaded fries are coming on soon too – it all just depends on the day and the weather, we make everything ourselves, and when I say that, I mean we make our own pastry, our own fillings, we make our own pies, we make our own burgers, our own sausages, everything we do is hand made. We welcome feedback, we’ll listen to the crowds, we’ll feed them the best we can. The one thing we don’t want is massive queues of people waiting for things, so we try and do quick service items that are a good price, and are healthy and tasty and a good quality.
How do you plan on bringing your award-winning standards with you?
There will always be a member of the Farmhouse family on site when there’s a matchday, so either me, Mum or Father, who will orchestrate the condition of the food, and it’s the same qualities and the same stuff as we’re using the shop, so it’s locally sourced, it’s locally reared, and it’s made by hand. We are planning on investing in a prep kitchen for the outside on match days. It’s just all about giving more to the fans so they’re not getting substandard quality. Our shop’s only a mile and a half away so we can always bring in more stock – more hot pies, more fresh sausage rolls – it depends how the fans are eating on the day.
🟡Part 3: The Future
How do you see the partnership growing over the season and beyond?
So obviously what Dave and Kieran are doing at the moment in terms of improving the fans experience and the quality of the club, we can do the same with more and more equipment and the bigger prep kitchen. The security that we have with our contract of two seasons means that we have that assurance that we can put that investment in there.
What does success look like for you, both as a business, and as a partner of Southport FC?
For us success is growing the reputation of Farmhouse Kitchen, growing the clubs reputation for fantastic food, winning some more awards for the club, and getting it known that we’re not just okay at football and good at food, but getting it known that the players are fantastic at football, with the investment in the team, and the food is phenomenal. That’s what we want to hear from everybody.
What message do you have for fans who’ll be tasting your food this weekend?
Hello! Thank you for having us back. We look forward to feeding you some fantastic food over the next couple of seasons, we look forward to hearing your feedback, please use our suggestion box which is on the wagon, use social media, or send us an email at sausagerolls@thefarmhousekitchen.co.uk . You can pop in and speak to one of us on a match day and tell us what you guys want, tell us what you expect from us as the caterers. We look forward to working with you all, and let’s smash the rest of this season out!
