FEATURE
Unique – The Warehouse Kitchen and Bar has quirky detail at every turn .
THE
‘ WOW ’
FACTOR
Inside the eye-catching eaterie that ’ s going from strength to strength
WORDS : DAVE ROBSON PICTURES : TOM BANKS
Passion for food – Owner Sean ( second right ) with business partner Alan ( second left ) and kitchen staff .
From the moment you walk into the Warehouse Kitchen and Bar , there ’ s a “ wow ” factor .
After all , it ’ s not every eating place that greets you with a life-size model of a steampunk Darth Vader .
With its busy kitchen and eclectic decor , it ’ s about as far from a cold , sterile warehouse as you can get .
There ’ s quirky detail everywhere – and finding the themed toilets for the first time is deliberately challenging .
Even its location , next to the Xtreme Bodyworx car repair shop on Stockton ’ s Preston Farm industrial estate , is something of a talking point .
But that ’ s just how ownerdirector Sean Wilkinson and business partner Alan Robinson like it .
From the environment you dine in to the topquality food that ’ s served , they want the warehouse experience to be memorable .
And it seems to be working . Since opening last
August , word of the warehouse has spread like wildfire to the extent that it ’ s regularly full and , on the Sunday before Tees Business visited , 150 Sunday lunches were served up for eat-in diners , plus a further 50 takeaways .
Not bad for a venture that came about through friendship , a passion for cooking and , given that they lost touch for a while , a side dish of good timing .
Boro lad Sean ’ s an ex-Stapylton School pupil whose early years were hampered by a disabling hip disease . He recalls : “ I was in a wheelchair , unable to walk , for a few years , but that made me defiant . Now , if people say I can ’ t do something , I always say ‘ I can ’. And I ’ m very black and white .”
After two years in the Army , and remembering cooking as a kid in his Great Aunt Peg ’ s Durham kitchen , he took a catering course at Middlesbrough ’ s Kirby College , left for London , where he worked in top hotels and then moved abroad , where he honed his culinary skills in France and Austria .
On returning to the UK , he says , matter-offactly , he “ opened a few restaurants and won a few awards ” before ending up as sous chef at Gisborough Hall – which is where he met Alan , from Brotton , who was working as kitchen porter as part of his chef ’ s apprenticeship , having begun as a pot washer .
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