What do a vintage double decker London bus, a 1960s American Airstream caravan and a World War II water tank have in common? They’ve all been converted into mobile food units by the innovative Chapman family in Co Armagh.
After starting with food trucks at markets, festivals and events, the Chapmans are now based at On The Hoof in Richhill, where this former flax mill, now busy restaurant, offers a variety of tempting food options. When you’re on the road travelling from Dublin or Belfast to Armagh, it’s worth taking a detour into the countryside to this lovely, airy, stone-built space.
There’s plenty of parking, a warm welcome and a menu with lots of food made in-house and sourced locally. The brioche-style bread used for brunch dishes is baked in-house every morning. There’s a selection of bright, fresh, colourful salads and homemade pickles available.
Family business
Pizza dough and sauce are made by hand and, for the weekend roast lovers, there’s a from-scratch roast dinner on a Sunday. The business was founded in 2016 by Fiona Chapman and her son, Rory.
“We’re all involved as a family, but it’s mainly Rory and I,” says Fiona. That doesn’t mean that either her husband or younger son get a free pass, though.
“My husband Niall and [son] Conor are also involved. The boys were in their teens when we started. Rory was at university studying his degree in aerospace engineering. Conor was studying, initially for his O and A levels, and then he went off to Bristol University to do a biomedical degree. He’s now onto his second degree, doing medicine, and he comes in and works to pay his way, so he’s in every weekend helping.”
“They’re both very driven,” she says, “As a mum, I’m very appreciative of the fact that I’ve always been able to come up with ideas and they either get behind me or poke me and say, ‘no Mum!’.”
Fiona was inspired to take the leap into food after visiting the Devon-based, farm-to-plate institution that is River Cottage. She and Niall were taking the boys on a road trip around Britain to visit the homeplace of her maternal grandmother in Guildford, but this was a journey down memory lane with ambitions for the future.
“We booked ourselves into the River Cottage restaurant,” Fiona says, “and Rory and I did a full day [class] with [then River Cottage chef and teacher] Gill Mellor.”
After a day spent outdoors cooking with fire, Fiona was inspired by the spirit and camaraderie involved in this food world: “Even though the rain was driving, it was a sheer joy to be with people who were all thinking like you. Plus we liked that whole ethos that they have around River Cottage of trying to be sustainable as best you can.”
At the time, Fiona – a former regional sales manager for a medical company – was looking to get back into the workforce following time at home caring for her parents.
“I’m an only child and I nursed both of them in their final years. You know yourself,” she says, “as a woman, you go out of the workplace to be a carer and it’s very hard then to go back doing what you did. I had to think about how to use my skills to give myself the opportunity to have a career again.”
Fiona and her sons had always been together in the kitchen.
“Our boys grew up with cooking being very much part of the day when they came home from school. We made dinner together,” she explains, “somebody to chop the onions, somebody to brown the mince for the spag bol. It was that type of a house. Niall’s off a farm in a place called Ballintaggart. He was from a house where dinner was on the table at 1pm and 5pm – food was a little bit functional rather than being an occasion to sit down and chat – but my mother-in-law was a wonderful baker and I learned a lot from her.”
Vintage dining
While many families have an interest in food, they don’t always go off and buy a bus to convert into a food truck. Fiona laughs: “It was a weird one. I have to give Rory credit for that.”
After the River Cottage visit, she was interested in doing something in the food world, but not all the family was fully on board: “Niall said ‘over my dead body will we ever have a restaurant’.” Rory – who was still a teenager – came up with the idea of buying a vintage Routemaster bus that they could kit out and turn into a mobile venue.
It was an effective way of getting started without too much financial commitment and it worked well for Fiona and Rory: if you visited food markets around the capital in the latter half of the 2010s, you may even have come across the bright red bus that they named Ruby.
“We were down in Dublin with [food markets business] Irish Village Markets around 2016 and 2017, and it gradually went from doing three to five markets a week.” Along with markets, the bus travelled to weddings and events, operating as a movable event space and café.
American Airstream
Emboldened by success, they purchased a 1963 Airstream and had it shipped across the Atlantic from Cape Cod in Massachusetts. These distinctive caravans with their curved and polished aluminium bodies are American style classics, but Fiona remembers: “It was in awful condition. It was full of acorns because it had been sitting under an oak tree. When we got it, we had to completely rip it out and start again. But we had the bones of an old Airstream and that meant a lot to Rory. He’s into sustainability, and his point was that it was repurposed and didn’t go into landfill.”
Rory’s engineering skills means that he’s been able to turn his hand to making these unconventional pieces of equipment earn their keep as food cooking and serving spaces.
“He does it all,” says Fiona. “He’s an engineering head, has all this equipment, and when something needs done, he will head down to the [workshop] and he’ll make it happen.”
I consider we’re very blessed to have the business we have. I really do. We’ve worked hard at it, but we wouldn’t be there if people didn’t grace us with their presence every weekend. So we really do value our customers. I always think, you’re only as good as the last meal you cooked
He also took on the challenge of building a smoker from an old World War II water tank that had been used on the family farm; the Chapmans now use it for their low and slow barbecue cooking.
Meats are sourced locally from butchers including Loughgall’s Hewitt Meats and Greenmount Farm in Richhill and smoked for hours over Bramley apple wood from surrounding orchards, imbuing the food with an extra layer of sweet, fruity flavour.
Other local suppliers include Chapel Lane Eggs from Markethill, Omeath’s Morgans Fine Fish, Drayne’s Farm in Lisburn for dairy and Barnhill apple juice comes from the Redmond family. Kathy Conway of Conway Farm Produce in Loughgall supplies seasonal vegetables, along with Sillis Green Vegetables in Monaghan.
Armagh is – of course – the Orchard County and Fiona uses apples from her husband’s homeplace at On The Hoof for their special apple pie. “[Niall’s family] still have orchards and I won’t let anybody cut them down. They’re old and gnarly, but I use the apples off the orchard every year. I get boxes gathered up and put them in our walk-in fridge and it makes enough apple pie until April. They’re awful to look at,” she says, “but they eat beautifully.”
Fiona also forages for things like elderflowers and elderberries, using those ingredients at events like the woodland suppers they hold at Gosford Forest Park for the annual Armagh Food and Cider Weekend: “We cooked over the fire for 60 guests every night and we did a cheesecake with our own elderflower cordial and our own elderberry coulis and everybody raved about it.“
Secret of success?
Ten years on, Fiona is still full of plans for new initiatives and improvements. What’s the secret of the family’s success?
“I consider we’re very blessed to have the business we have,” she says, “I really do. We’ve worked hard at it, but we wouldn’t be there if people didn’t grace us with their presence every weekend. So we really do value our customers. I always think, you’re only as good as the last meal you cooked.
“And you have to always remember to put your best foot forward at all times. No excuses.”
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