Well, here we are at week 13.
Halloween is upon us, we’ve launched an early-bird offer, the kitchen is fermenting, the Food Collective is opening its first order window, and we’re getting ready to bring a little more life back into The Warren. There’s quite a lot going on this week, so grab a cuppa and settle in.
Early-bird offer: your first drink is on us!
We’ve introduced something new for those of you joining us for dinner on Friday and Saturday nights.
Book a table between 5pm and 6pm, order a main course and a dessert, and your first drink is on us! Choose a complimentary glass of our house wine or a non-alcoholic alternative.
The last booking time for this offer is 5:45pm, so make sure you get your booking in early.
It’s our way of encouraging you to come a little earlier, settle in, and enjoy a relaxed evening with us. We’re all about good food, good drink and good company, and we’d love to see a few more of you making an evening of it.
Please note that this offer won’t be available once our Christmas menu begins, so make the most of it while you can!
The Gathering is coming!
I’m particularly excited about this one.
We’ve officially announced our first Gathering at The Warren, and we’re hoping it’s the beginning of something really special.
If you’ve ever been to a Warren party, you’ll have some idea of what we’re trying to recreate: a room full of open-minded people, good music, conversations with strangers who quickly become friends, and that feeling of being somewhere you belong.
The idea is to bring that energy back on a monthly basis.
And there’s something else I’m especially pleased to announce: our open mic night is returning after more than five years!
Over the years, so many people have told me that some of their favourite memories of The Warren were those open mic nights. They were a place for people to share their music, try something new, perform for the first time, or simply enjoy the incredible talent we have around us.
So we’re giving it another spin. Expect live music, an open mic, and a room full of people coming together for a good evening.
We’ll be putting our usual restaurant service aside for the night, so there won’t be a normal menu, but we’ll be making some snacks to enjoy behind the bar.
Pete, who I’m sure many of you know from Glasbren, will be behind the bar. Whether he’ll be tempted to do a spot of fire spinning remains to be seen!
The Gathering will also coincide with the first Food Collective collection, so there’ll be plenty of reasons to pop down.
📅 The details
Thursday, 12 November | 5pm–9pm
Tickets are £5 and include your first drink. We want this to be an accessible event, so we’ll also have a handful of solidarity tickets available for anyone who can’t comfortably cover the standard ticket price.
All tickets are limited, so please book ahead to avoid disappointment.
We’re also accepting Tempo Time Credits. If you’ve been collecting credits through volunteering here or elsewhere in the area, you can exchange them for a little something behind the bar.
This is intended to become a monthly event, so keep your eyes peeled for future dates. We’d love to see you there!
🥬 The Food Collective is officially open!
Today’s a big day. At midday, the first ordering window for the Warren Food Collective opens, giving members access to more than 2,000 products at prices close to what we pay for them ourselves.
But why are we doing this?
It comes down to something pretty simple: we believe everyone should have access to good-quality food.
We want more of us to be able to fill our cupboards with wholesome ingredients that last, that nourish us, and that mean something to us. At a time when we’re hearing more and more about the importance of being prepared and keeping food in our homes, we want to make it easier to do just that, without everyone having to rely on supermarket shelves.
This isn’t about panic buying. It’s about building a more resilient local food system, sharing the benefits of buying in bulk, and making better food more accessible to our community.
If you’re already a member, your first ordering window open at midday today! You’ve got one week to place your order, with the window closing next Thursday at midday. New members can still join before then.
Once this first window closes, there’ll be a two-week break before the next one opens. We’re planning another ordering round in December, ahead of Christmas.
However, we strongly recommend getting your Christmas orders in now rather than leaving everything until December. The run-up to Christmas can be hectic, and stock levels can become unpredictable. Ordering early gives you a better chance of getting everything you need without the last-minute rush.
If you’re thinking about stocking up your cupboards for Christmas, now’s the time!
We’ll share more information with members about ordering and collection as we go.
🤝 Calling Carmarthenshire’s business owners
We’ve been busy reaching out to hundreds of local business owners to let them know about something we’re developing: the Warren Business Club.
This is an invitation-only club for business owners across the Carmarthenshire area. We want to create a space where the people who keep our local economy moving can connect, support one another, and explore opportunities to work together.
Running a small business isn’t always easy, and we know how much time, energy and commitment goes into keeping things going. This is our way of recognising that effort and bringing more of our local business community together.
If you’re a business owner and would like to find out more, drop us a message or email us at The Warren, and we’ll be in touch.
🎁 Our Christmas calendar needs you!
While we’re talking about local businesses, we’ve got another opportunity we’d love your help with.
We’re putting together a 24-day Christmas giveaway calendar, featuring prizes from local businesses throughout December.
We’re looking for all sorts of contributions. Perhaps you’re a restaurant that could offer a meal, a shop with a lovely product to give away, a local business with an experience to share, a parking provider who could offer a parking space, or an Airbnb host who might donate a stay.
There are so many brilliant things happening in our area, and we’d love to showcase them.
In return, we’ll be giving participating businesses plenty of promotion through our website, social media, restaurant visitors and the wider community. We want to make a real noise about the people who get involved and help more people discover the wonderful businesses on their doorstep.
If you’ve got something you’d like to contribute, we’d love to hear from you! Send us a message or email The Warren with a little information about your business and what you’d like to offer.
Let’s make this Christmas calendar something special for Carmarthenshire.
🦌 What’s happening in the kitchen?
It’s not all announcements and new projects. There’s plenty happening behind the scenes, too.
Today, our volunteers are doing something a little different: some butchery in the kitchen, working with venison we’re collecting from the estate this morning.
It’s a great opportunity to work with a fantastic local ingredient and make the most of what we have available to us.
Last week, we were making sauerkraut with cabbage from Blaencamel Farm. Cabbage, salt, time and a little patience.
Fermentation is one of those wonderfully simple ways of preserving food, developing flavour and making the most of what’s in season. It feels rather fitting given everything we’re trying to do with the Food Collective.
💙 Supporting our NHS and emergency services
We’ve also signed up to the Blue Light Card scheme, offering discounts to eligible members of the NHS and emergency services.
Keep an eye out for The Warren on the Blue Light Card app. We’re pleased to be able to offer a little something back to the people who do so much for our communities.
🌱 Community spotlight: Carmarthen Climate Shop and Trees.org.uk
One of the things I’d like to do more of in these journals is shine a light on brilliant community projects happening around Carmarthen, including those that aren’t directly connected to food or The Warren.
This week, I want to tell you about Ru and the work he’s doing through Carmarthen Climate Shop, particularly a project called Trees.org.uk.
It’s a wonderfully clever idea that makes it easier for people to pass on unwanted items rather than throw them away.
The concept is simple: you sign up, pack up things you no longer need in a shoebox or larger box, and send them off using the project’s postal donation system or drop them at one of the many available locations. Your items can then find a new home through participating shops.
The service is designed to make donating straightforward and accessible, without the usual hassle of figuring out where everything should go.
And there’s an added bonus: signing up gets ten trees planted.
I think this is a brilliant example of making the sustainable choice an easy choice. We all have things sitting around at home that someone else could use, but sometimes the effort of passing them on is enough to stop us doing anything about it.
Ru is our good friend of ours who’s doing wonderful things, and I love seeing practical ideas like this making a difference.
Have a look at Trees.org.uk and see how you can get involved. And thank you, Ru, for coming up with such a clever way to help people part with the things they no longer need.
That’s all from me this week!
Thanks, as always, for reading, supporting what we’re doing, and being part of this community.
See you soon,
Deri Reed ❤️