Help bring joy to the people of Durham.
UPDATE: Coarse has eventually found its own home in Durham city centre! Will be along shortly.
Crowdfunding is a funny one. I’ve mixed feelings on it to be honest. And I’ve probably been a bit mouthy and cynical about it, which has caused me to receive hell on social media. But I suppose what is Twitter if not a breeding ground for self-entered toxicity? I’m not a fan of the ‘Give me £100 so I can spunk it, k thanks’ type appeals which proliferate the platform. But getting an expensive restaurant off the ground and needing to find some serious capital is a different matter, and crowdfunding is after all, nothing but a marketing ploy.
That said, some are genuinely fantastic opportunities, like this one for Coarse. A new restaurant that, with any luck 🤞🏼🤞🏼 is coming to Durham in 2022.
Check out the Kickstarter page to read the finer details, but considering Durham city centre is a major population hub which is both wealthy and student-rich, it’s largely bereft of great restaurants. A few notable superstars, obvs.
But the appeal of Coarse, is that it’s a venture by chef Ruari MacKay, i.e. the bloke that makes food that you want to eat. I gushed over some of his bait in a bit more spiel here at The Traveler’s Rest (oh what will become of you, if this succeeds?), but when he’s at the helm you know it’s going to be superlative. Coarse is earmarked to be a Durham city centre restaurant that will serve an ‘affordable, informal’ tasting menu for just £35. Is this not right up everyone’s street?
If the actual menu comes out anything like this, that’s an absolute no-brainer. We’ve all gotten a little weary of 42-course tasting menus, and a promise of affordability is always welcome.
You can straight up pledge £70 for 2x of these menus which is a shoe-in for me. But other rewards range from tea towels and aprons, right up to the coveted graduation week reservation, private hire of the entire venue, and an invite to the launch party. But there’s no minimum, so you can dob in even just a few quid if you’re feeling generous.
It’s not often I’ll support something at this stage but I can promise you when it opens it will be a cracker. So if you’re desperate for a Christmas gift for someone with a big appetite, or fancy helping to make Durham the quality place to eat that it almost certainly should be, hoy a few quid in below before December 23rd👇🏼
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