We chat to the owners of Pale in Ludlow, which is both eatery and an arts venue complete with artists studio.
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00:00We're in Ludlow and we're at PAIL, Cafe and Arts Venue, yeah?
00:04Kitchen and Arts.
00:05Kitchen and Arts, that's the one.
00:07How you doing guys, introduce yourselves.
00:10Yeah, well I think we're both good.
00:12I'm Janet, artist in the business.
00:15Cool.
00:15I'm Clive Davis, the chef.
00:17Great, so how long has it been, you've been open here then, it's quite new.
00:21We opened January the 2nd, we did a few trial days over Christmas,
00:25but the official opening was January the 2nd.
00:28So talk us through the ethos of the place that we've got here then.
00:32It's kind of, as I say, it's a bit of an eatery, a bit arts.
00:35Talk us through what happens here.
00:37The food side, we really set up the cafe that we can run with two people.
00:42We've got eight tables, so we're sort of doing 14 to 20 covers.
00:46Predominantly a bakery style kitchen, so mainly croissant related pastries,
00:51but custard tarts are a big hit and we'll slightly build a few other lines from there.
00:58Yeah, so that's just going to expand and expand from where we are.
01:00Just a few more things and then a simple lunch menu.
01:04And the arts business, so I'm an artist, there's workshops based upstairs,
01:10which I use and run workshops from, but also other artists come in and run workshops from,
01:17yoga classes and all kinds of bits and pieces.
01:19And we've got this wall down there, down the side and a table here
01:24that we have my art on and other people's art that people can come in,
01:28have a nosy around at or hopefully come and buy.
01:31Fantastic and it's a lovely space upstairs, isn't it, with those beams.
01:37So you live in Ludlow, you had a previous eatery in the town and moved away for a few years and
01:44you're back. What is it that's drew Ludlow back?
01:47Is it the magic of Ludlow that's pulled you back?
01:50We've got a lot of roots, we've been in Ludlow a long time, we've been in Ludlow 20 years.
01:54We came here when our children were small. We've got a lot of good friends here.
01:59We have the other business here, Clive had the green cafe
02:02and that developed a really loyal following, I would say, within the time.
02:08And Ludlow to us feels like home now, even though neither of us are from here.
02:13Yeah.
02:13This is our kind of home time. So yeah, we've got a lot of good friends here.
02:19And talk us through your artwork then, Jan. How would you describe your art?
02:24Is it a mixed, is this very typical of what you do?
02:30This is a typical example of what I do. So I'm a mixed media artist.
02:35I do lots of expressive drawing and painting and I overlay that with stitch, fabrics and
02:44sometimes photographic imagery. So this is a photograph of an olive tree that I've taken
02:52and that's printed out and overlaid on top of the painting beneath. So yeah,
02:57so that is very typical of my work.
03:00So is that your studio upstairs then? This is literally where you do a lot of your work as well?
03:05No, I have a home studio as well and I always find that whatever piece of material that I
03:10need to do my artwork, it's always in the other place.
03:13Yeah, it's typical, isn't it?
03:14Yeah.
03:15So I use the space upstairs as my art space when it's not being used by other people.
03:19Yeah.
03:20That isn't always convenient. You know, the public and the community use of that space
03:24is more important than me using it, but I do for convenience sometimes.
03:29So if people want to find out a bit more about kind of some of those workshops that might be
03:32coming up and when you're open and so on, how do they kind of find out a little bit more?
03:38They can sign up to our newsletter.
03:41Yeah, how do they do that?
03:44Well, I've got a, it's probably not very helpful for your video,
03:47but I've got a QR code they could follow.
03:49Aha, yeah.
03:50That we could attach to there and there's a link on our Instagram.
03:55Great stuff. Well, we wish you all the best in business and then nice to have you back in Ludlow.
03:59Thank you, folks.
04:03So we're pale. Come and check us out. We're in the parkway right by Floribunda.