By Steve Moxey
I was at Bahnstormer on the 8th February getting my R1250RS serviced and I had a chance to talk to Seb Bourgoin, who runs the new cafe at Bahnstormer Alton whilst enjoying one of his excellent sausage rolls!
Bahnstormer Alton Cafe Interview with Seb 8th February 2022
Q: OK Seb so why did you decide to do a cafe?
A: The idea came between the owner, Alistair, and myself. It was during COVID and a lot of people were starting to open cafes, outdoor cafes, and sort of mobile cafes; the idea came during the winter. We thought maybe an air streamer or a little van? The idea came up this way.
Anyway we looked at where the older jet wash was and as we were expanding the old workshop the idea was to start as a cafe and then to do local food as well, and home made pizza!
The cafe offers a lot of food for people who want to come in for a service. So we can provide very fresh food so they don’t have to ride out and can stay and enjoy Bahnstormer.
Originally it was to offer hot food for those who want to stay during their service and enjoy the food. And then it started developing to open the cafe to local people, local business. The village doesn’t have a cafe and so we welcome all the local people. We also have walkers, cyclists, and we offer service to customers of local businesses including cars!
Q: How successful has it been?
A: Well, we started in June 2021. The cafe is very, very popular on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, but Saturday is our busiest day. The cafe is running very well, obviously quieter in the Winter months. We would say our season starts in March and runs to November, December.
Q: What is the most popular food?
A: OK, our most popular thing is the homemade sausage rolls, chilli and maple sausage roll, and our pizzas, homemade pizzas.
Q: And what about drinks?
A: Anyone who purchases anything from the shop or has a service gets a complimentary hot drink. So that could be from a t-shirt to a gadget or a motorbike.
Q: So what ideas have you got for the future?
A: For the cafe for this summer we are trying to expand our menu a little bit. We are thinking of doing chocolate brownies, some more varieties of pizza – also a cooked breakfast on a pizza, ‘breakfast on pizza’!
In the afternoon we will try to do afternoon tea; we will make scones and jam for afternoon tea. Good for people at the end of a ride?
Q: So have you done anything with motorcycle clubs?
A: Well we have done a couple of events, a birthday party for someone who was a customer of Bahnstormer, a party of 50 people. We can do private parties on Sunday as well.
We also had a local group of BMW bikers (Oxford section) who preordered. I think that worked really well and there were about 12-14 of them. They ordered at the beginning of their ride and gave me about 1-2 hours notice. They also had reserved private parking next to the cafe. If the group is more than 10 is always a good idea to pre-book.
Thank you to Seb for the interview and to John Gilbride for the excellent photographs. if you get a chance the new cafe at Bahnstormer Alton is well worth a visit.
A great idea and deserves to do well. Not only looking after the Bahnstormers bikers and clients, but also the local community. That’s a ‘Win, Win’ for sure. I know it’s personally much further to go down to Bahnstormers, rather than NOG. But this is one of several reasons why I’ll continue to travel a little bit further. Thanks for this article Steve.