In 2015, I opened Brassica Mercantile directly next door to our restaurant at No. 3 The Square in Beaminster. Rather annoyingly, after three years, the landlord wanted to sell the whole building without a tenant. There was a great panic, but luckily, a shop across the square became available almost immediately, and we moved to No. 5 The Square in June 2018. No. 5 was such a beautiful shopfront, all was well, and we were very happy with our location.
However, all was not to be, as on the night of 18 August 2018, a group of thieving individuals thought it would be a great idea to steal a telehandler from the nearby farm and attempt to rip the cashpoint out of the side of a Grade 1* Listed building next to our new shop.
When the telehandler went into the side of the building, a huge explosion was heard, and the side of the building literally tumbled to the ground. The thieves try to flee with the cashpoint on the back of a Land Rover pick-up, but it fell off the back into the middle of the A3066 outside my shop.
For nearly two years, the 'listed' rubble was left untouched in the road whilst the police, insurers, lost adjusters and the landlords grappled with accountability. It was only just before lockdown in March 2020 did the rebuilding of the premises get underway, using the original stone, which was hand-chiselled one by one...
Fast forward to 2023, we opened Brassica Forno down in Bridport and then the craziness of which town to be in on any given day! Our business is only small, with a maximum of 10 (including us!) working for the three sites at any one time. By the time the Budget was announced in 2025, with the changes to National Insurance, minimum wage and business rates reviewed, small businesses have found themselves struggling. We took stock and decided that we would revert to our original idea back in 2014 when we arrived in Dorset - to have a restaurant and retail under one roof and consolidate on costs.
So our new plans for the restaurant site to become home to Brassica Restaurant & Mercantile were born. We insitgated the plan pretty quickly and now we are trading together at No. 4 The Square. Our beautiful shop will soon be a framers cum gallery. We are very happy with the changes, it gave Brassica Restaurant a new lease of life after 11 years, and I get to work once again side by side with my husband and stepdaughter, Tabatha. We haven't lost many seats to the new shop area but we have a wonderful counter which sells our baked goods during the day and transformed in the evening to a bar/counter for drinks and or eating.
The homewares side of Brassica Mercantile is still available in the new site, but more of the offer is listed online at Brassica Mercantile's webshop.
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