Martin’s Diary – Flu, worn shoes, exhaustion but lots of smiles and happiness

am running all the time. I am doing my best to spend as much time as possible building our new business and spending time with Lucy, Felix and Otilia, and trying to hold it all together. Life is moving fast, and so is our new venture so it’s difficult stopping for a mo and telling you what’s going on as it’s quite a lot. But if I look at my diary from the last few weeks I can mention the following: I’ve met Peru’s greatest tenor Juan Diego Flores. He is passionate about Peruvian cuisine. I’ve met the Peruvian Ambassador who is a true supporter of Ceviche and loves Pisco Sours! I’ve had a chat with footie player Nolberto ‘Nobby’ Solano as he has always wanted his own restaurant and I met the fantastic Chef and Broadcaster Merrilees Parker. This was by chance in a Nigel Hall shop where she was shopping with her cool hubby. What luck. I had been a huge fan of Merrilees as she was the only TV Chef that had been to Peru and shot there so when I saw her I ran over to her like an embarrassing groupie. She was great, heard me out and now loves Ceviche.

This all may sound glamorous but in between I’ve been working 18 hour days. I’ve gone through 2 pairs of shoes as I have spent many many hours walking around Soho, Covent Garden, Shoreditch and many more areas looking for potential sites. I have a clicker counter and have spent hours outside restaurants and on particular streets studying footfall. I feel like I know every brick in Archer Street – a great place where our restaurant could be. I spend hours in restaurants that may compete with ours or may be a positive influence to ours. I watch, count, talk to people and drink water. Tap water. Otherwise our development budget would be astronomical. I’ve been using the ‘Boris Bikes’ too to get from meeting to meeting. One day there was an enormous rainfall. I got soaked, arrived at DCL’s offices – a top property agent – dripping and began to present our business to them. They loved Ceviche, but they didn’t like the wet patch I left on their expensive Chesterfield sofa. Sorry Tracey. The problem was that 2 days later I got an almighty flu. But no rest for the start-ups. We move on and forward; with a smile on our face and a mission to start Ceviche. With me are our fantastic growing team. I am grateful to have them and am excited by what we are about to do and become.