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Eaterie offers 'sherpa' service to guests
4:11pm Tuesday 13th May 2008
PEOPLE booking at a new Windermere restaurant are being offered a sherpa' to help them make their dinner date on time.
Former Kendal college student Richard Gornall and his wife, Lisa, say that their new enterprise, The Hideaway, is sometimes just a bit too true to its name.
Scouting for The Hideaway
Text sherpa for a guide
Since re-opening The Hideaway as a "restaurant with rooms," the couple report booming business. But on more than one occasion, they have had to send out guides to meet hungry guests who haven't been able to navigate the short last leg from Windermere centre.
"We're now inviting customers to text sherpa' on their mobiles if they get lost," says Richard. "We will then call back and, if necessary, send out a guide to lead them here personally".
Not that being off the beaten track is all bad new for business, they say. For despite being in the hub of one of Lakeland's most popular tourist spots, The Hideaway offers a quiet and relaxing venue for eating well and sleeping soundly.
Richard, originally from near Preston, and Lisa, who comes from Southport, both quit high-flying careers with Virgin Atlantic to go solo with their own venture.
The couple met while working at Virgin's HQ, near Gatwick, in Sussex, where they travelled the world developing international menus for passengers on the airline's Upper Class' service.
After a combined nine years of globetrotting, Richard and Lisa decided to go it alone - inspired, they admit, by the pioneering business philosophy of their boss, Sir Richard Branson. They left Virgin, and took over The Hideaway at Windermere's Phoenix Way, which was then trading as a traditional hotel.
Richard and Lisa's aim, however, was to try to woo a new market of customers who shared their vision of great food in stunning surroundings, but at affordable prices.
Richard believes the sherpa' text service for lost' guests is something their former boss, Sir Richard, would have been proud of.
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Richard and Lisa Gornall, The Hideaway restaurant.
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