A few minutes with… Chloe Bucknell – The Gin Kitchen

Do I have a treat for you this week!? If you love gin, this is a gem! In this ‘a few minutes with…’ I catch up with Chloe Bucknell from The Gin Kitchen… a mobile gin bar. I know. I spoil you…

Tell us about you and your background
We are two childhood friends, Chloe Bucknell and Evie Marsh, who found a joint love of horses and all things country at a young age. Even before we were old enough to drink gin, we were thinking about it. Our parents may have only allowed us to try the tonic, but we knew for years it would taste better with juniper berries and a few botanicals. From our first sip, we fell in love with the infused drinks and soon became ‘ginfatuated’!

Chloe has a background within the Events & Exhibition Industry whilst Evie has the Hospitality and Catering knowledge. Having visited many distilleries across the globe, combined with hundreds of hours spent serving behind pub bars and finally, sampling over 250 expressions, we decided to share our experience with everyone. With our love of the outdoors and gin collided, we found ourselves creating The Gin Kitchen.

What made you want to start a business?
We actually happened to be sat in a pub having a in tipple after a long day out horse riding when we came up with the idea of being the UK’s answer to stationary drinking. With gin fans increasing by the day all over the world, we thought it was only right we supported this concept by occupying the minds and hearts of gin drinkers. Even those who claim they don’t like the generic ‘gin’ drink, we have proven to change their mind with our vast and continuously growing collection. Gin has never been this good, and it might never be this good again! We want to encourage people to enjoy it whilst they can, by letting us put a drink of their choice firmly in their hand, at events all over the UK.

How is your The Gin Kitchen different?
Unlike other mobile bars, we offer a gin experience alongside their chosen G&T. We’re all about customer service, providing people with a high-class drink to enjoy whilst creating a new experience for the gin loving community. We have so many ideas that will all be revealed over the next 12 months but we guarantee there is a gin out there for everyone. We offer packages for ‘Tie-The-Knot’ kind of days to Corporate Brand Launches or Birthday parties, the range of events we cater for is endless! The Gin Kitchen provides you with a contemporary yet country mobile horse trailer bar, knowledgable and friendly staff but most importantly, high-quality G&T’s and Gin Fizz Cocktails throughout your event.

If you had to sum up The Gin Kitchen in five words, what would they be?
Unique, Fun, Creative, Dynamic, Gin-Lovers!

Do you have a motto or ethos?
“It’s never too early for Gin O’Clock”

If you could give one piece of advice to an aspiring business owner, what would it be?
Challenge yourself and never give up on your dreams. We both had an idea that we turned into reality and it makes you extremely proud to see hard work paying off. Take the risk and believe in yourself but most importantly, enjoy it and have fun!

One thing that helps you run your business more effectively?
Our trusty Apple products! Our iPads turn into our till systems, our Macbooks into our Marketing tools and our iPhones for being sociable on the go.

Best thing about running a business?
We get to choose who we work with, lucky for us, we’re two great friends who know get to spend even more time together. Not only that, we have taken the risks and are proud of the rewarding outcome of what we are achieving. We’ve challenged one another but we’ve followed our passion and we both feel pride in building our own business for other people to enjoy.

Worst thing about running a business?
Besides drinking far too many gin samples… Hmm, I can’t think of any negatives that The Gin Kitchen has provided us!

Top business blog you follow
It might not be a blog but @theginguide has to be one of our favourites!

Top business achievement
Becoming 90% booked up through to the end of the year and seven 2018 bookings within our first eight weeks of launching The Gin Kitchen!

Where can people follow you or your business online?
www.theginkitchen.co.uk

Twitter – @GinKitchen
Instagram – @theginkitchen_trailer
Facebook – www.facebook.com/theginkitchentrailer

If you’d like to see a few more ‘a few minutes with’ blogs – why not check out Rosie Neave from Pheasant Plucker & Son here,  Athena Cauley-Yu from Meticulous Ink here or Anna Butler from Butler Stewart here?