The former JC Rook & Sons butchers and pie shop in Broadstairs looks set to become a Turkish restaurant.
The shops in Broadstairs and Ramsgate and the factory site in Ramsgate shut in March 2022 after the firm went into administration.
Six people at the Broadstairs site were made redundant. In total some 130 people lost their jobs. The directors of the company at that time were James Murray and Adrian Burr, also a director for Southover Foods in Sussex and formerly a director of RP Meats Wholesale Ltd until April 2020. Andrew Rook resigned in 2021.
J C Rook and Sons had been trading in Kent for well over half a century but the firm, under its new management, owed some £2million when it shut.
The Ramsgate Rook’s store became Hidden Treasures indoor market in May last year but shut in September due to ill health. It has since reopened but as one store rather than providing space for a number of traders.
A licensing application has now been made by Mr Nagmalden Jakerka for opening hours and supply of alcohol from 10am to 11pm daily. The new venue will be called Naj Turkish Restaurant.
Comments on the licensing application can be made before the February 22 deadline. Views can be submitted here
Such a pity to have lost a great family business and 130 jobs that used local people . Their overheads would have been huge and nobody can carry on trading at a loss. As I have said many times the advent of Westwood X was a killer for our towns . If there was a plan for the town shops to survive it would have been great . But sadly no plan for the loyal local shopkeepers at all. One can only wonder just how long the remaining town businesses can survive 😢😢😢
They’ll survive just as long as people patronise them.
I will patronise a shop that offers great prices & great service & sells what I want to buy
I wasn’t aware of a butcher’s shop at Westwood Cross. Other such shops are still thriving in Thanet, so it is a bit unfair to blame WX for another firm’s failings.
I did enjoy a Rook’s sausage though!!
That is some positive news
Great, there’s not many restaurants at that end of Broadstairs.
Rooks did themselves out of business not Westwood Cross.
They charged too much for their meats and the Broadstairs branch mainly relied on the pastry side.
Working for Hazel’s in town we saw our business thrive because of the quality, cost and service. Things that were lacking at Rooks.
Nowadays the new customer will pick meat up from supermarkets, where before their parents and grandparents would use the local Butcher.
Times change, habits change and unfortunately butchers shut, but those who last longest are the ones that offer great prices and service.
The meat trade is dying and we need to look to the future instead of living in the past!
We simply don’t need yet another eatery on Broadstairs, the number already is at ridiculous levels, offer some incentives and encourage some other retailer there and get footfall up during the day not at 11pm.
With apologies for sounding like a broken record – but it is market forces and demand that primarily governs the success or failure of any business (notwithstanding pricing, quality and service elements).
Clearly there are sufficient folks in Thanet willing and able to patronise multiple restaurants – but not butchers’ shops.
Fine, let’s just turn it over to McDonald’s and 20 lap dancing clubs like in Shoreditch if you love market forces so much, the council should actually do some work and manage the area and that means not allowing these cheap pop up restaurants in every empty shop which do absolutely nothing for the diverse needs of local people. It’s pure lazy planning and why all high streets are dying on their arses throughout the UK.
Worse are micropubs. They always allow them in areas where REAL pubs are closing (if someone wants to open a Thanet micropub, let them do it in Acol or Cliffsend where there’s no other pubs!).
As for lap dancing clubs, why don’t we get pubs with strippers any more? They often livened up lunchtimes down the Old Kent Road back in the 70s & 80s!
We do have strippers already ; large ones ; TDC as they have stripped Thanet of its once thriving towns and like magic made them into ghost towns . So maybe a couple of magicians as well .
There was a pretty large stripper in The Dun Cow circa 1983 (a big Welsh bird, knew how to tease!).
The Dun Cow…now that brings back memories,Ms. Pink.We must have frequented some of the same haunts,along the Old Kent Road.
When signs came up outside pubs advertising “Linch time Strippers” you knew it was the death knell for that business.
Exactly. Bad spelling and grammar puts everyone off.
Micropubs are bringing back the choice people want, a decent place for a chat a proper beer and time to just be. We don’t all want ‘another Thorley tavern’ with too many notices, the same beer and the TV on so the bar staff don’t get bored. As for strippers well there are some daisies which need you attention, they have slipped and need pushing up!
I only drink with a meal, so I never go in micropubs (got better things to do than sit there being chatted up by frustrated old men!).
I find it very funny that women think they are irresistible to men just because they are alone in a bar and hate being bothered by older guys….in my observations over the years it’s not the guys age which is the problem it’s that his car isn’t shiny enough or his wallet fat enough for them to consider you worthy to speak too.
Not all women are as attractive as I am.
Hahaha this not old nor frustrated women loves micropubs and find their clientele interesting.
There is one in Cliffsend, maybe you need to get out more.
So do you, if you think all pubs are like Thorleys.
Most pubs have the same unappealing choices as Thorley taverns and I regularly travel allover the country and frequent many micropubs and other pubs.
If they want to be “retro”, micropubs should at least have a jukebox with records from the ’50s & ’60s.
Maybe micropubs flourish where traditional pubs fail because they gave a different business model.
They usually last 5-10 years. Instead of 100-200 years like real pubs.
Where did that gem of wisdom come from? You do know the background to them, how they came about? Where are all these closed micropubs, there are a few I grant you but up and down the UK they are usually flourishing. They have no brewery ties so no must have stella/fosters/doombar and no landlord upping their rent everytime they dare do well. I have a feeling I may be better versed on this subject than you, stick to boring stories which have been done to death about rock’n roll.
And you stick to getting p-ssed in converted shops.
Always surprised it went bust as that particular branch was always busy! Can’t speak for the others
Ms Pink… beauty is in the eye of the beholder and delusional is only in their own mind….truly beautiful women tend to be humble and demure not put a false rating on themselves….tbh you sound a bit of a nightmare and the men you blanked should pray to their own god for the bullet they dodged.
I’ve been told it so many times, it must be true (not bad for someone who was born male!).
I dare not reply to that…..but you can read my thoughts….or is “you” not the correct mode of address.
We are all aware Ms Pink is a pseudonym Peter!a
Not another one please, still don’t have to go there.
I wish we had more French restaurants in this country, trouble is the French won’t come to live here and I don’t blame ’em!
Who said micropubs want to be retro, none I know do, that is a strange ‘fact’ you appear to have made up. They are places to converse not listen to music, especially not the sort sad people keep churning out books on.
Sounds boring. I’ll stick to real pubs.
Please do, and do the rest of us a favour.
Why aren’t I surprised that you frequent micropubs? Bet it’s a right bundle of laughs.
I think I may have touched a nerve, never mind old timer talking of strippers and referring to woman as birds means it is time for you to make a hasty exit. What an embarrassment to South London.
Oh dear, a politically correct drunken bore. Can it get any worse?
Your pedigree as a writer hardly shines through in your posts, makes me wonder if you are a bit rubbish. I don’t think I am particularly politically correct but I suspect you are rather grumpy; hardly surprising, it must be uncomfortable having your knuckles drag on the ground when you go on your walks. Teetotallers can enjoy visiting pubs too, did no one ever tell you assumptions can be a bad thing, you need intelligence to make an educated guess.
If he is anything like how he comes across on here you can only feel pity for him!
And Ruth, please put ’em away.
https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/7982137adaaf8ccc742d6835dacb855a?s=800&d=mm
Ruth, I have no pity for Peter Checksfield, because of his many awful comments.
I pity Ms. Rees. In so many ways.
I use the language and words I was raised with, both in speech and writing – with no compromises for modern Americanisms like “dude” and calling women “you guys”.
Vile man!
It is because of people like you that the Internet has a bad name and you just cause misery!
Nor do I, that was not my point. Your responses show no pithy wit or flair for language that I would expect of anyone who writes for a living regardless of topic.
Hullo Ruth and Abdouja. Good comments, keep it up! Fortunately I have no need of Mr Checksfield’s pity, which is probably non-existent anyway.
If there’s a League Table for deleted comments, I imagine that Checksfield/Pink ranks very highly.
Right, that’s it – you’re not getting on my bus anymore.