This week we were absolutely thrilled to have The Lightbox cafe relaunched as Seasons Cafe & Kitchen! With the team behind The Tipsy Pigs at the helm, the cafe space has been completely revamped and redecorated for the first time in ten years, along with a fresh and exciting new menu to boot. We get to know the Seasons team and what to expect from your new favourite cafe.

What's the story behind The Tipsy Pigs?

The Tipsy Pigs have been trading since Feb 2015 as a private catering agency specialising in weddings and garden parties. Our focus has been great tasting, homemade, and wholesome food, alongside the much-loved classic VW Cocktail Campervan, Tipsy.

Tipsy Pigs was created because we love food, love old campervans, love people and well, who doesn’t love a cocktail? We’ve worked in catering and events our whole careers so our experience ensures we deliver fun, affordable and flawless catering. Always.

Can you tell us a bit about the team behind Seasons?

We are James, Neil & Carla who collectively own 100% of the company. We all grew up in and around Woking and have been friends since all attending Fullbrook School, back in the 90’s.

Neil Tompkins
Award winning head chef who worked in Michelin starred restaurants and more recently was the head chef at Sands.  Neil has over 15 years of experience in the food industry and has a passion for rustic, homemade and creative cooking.
 
Carla Williams
20 years experience in the service industry and currently the manager at Sands Restaurant. She is a skilled chef in her own right and delivers the highest standards of customer service.
 
James Farmer
A director of an independent brand experience agency, Woof London, James has delivered high profile communications for the UK’s top brands and brings 12 years experience of operating a small business.

What made you want to work with The Lightbox to open this new café and kitchen?

Over the last two years we found that whilst our event catering diary was full at the weekend from April to Sept, it was a lot harder to find business Monday to Friday and across the winter. Our thoughts turned towards a premises to trade, although the reality of setting up from scratch were difficult due to finances. Once we heard there about the opportunity to take over an existing cafe with all the infrastructure in place inside a cultural space as exciting as the Lightbox, it felt like a perfect progression for our business.

We felt that whilst the cafe was established, there was still good opportunity to bring our own style and improved menu in order to make the cafe a destination in itself.

What were your inspirations and aims when putting the new menu together?

Neil has a background in cooking wholesome British classics and cut his teeth working in Roules, one of the longest established restaurants in the UK, opening in the 1700’s. Roules had its own game estate and regularly cooked meats for certain times of the year, so Neil developed a passion for cooking food in season.

SEASONS cafe & kitchen will be introducing seasonal specials such as warm salad of sea trout in the spring and braised venison come the autumn, alongside our everyday menu. 

What are your favourite dishes on the new menu?

Our menu is a representation of our passion - making people happy and healthy through great food and drink. Its difficult to pinpoint a favourite as they are all fab (of course we’d say that), but our signature pulled pork sub is a thing of beauty!

Do you have any exciting plans for the future of Seasons that you can reveal to us?

Look out for Cocktails In The Courtyard from Apr to Sept every friday night. We will take advantage of the beautiful canal side courtyard and make it a destination for people leaving work on a Friday night who want to enjoy a drink in the sunshine. 

Tuesdays to Saturdays: 10.30am – 4.30pm 
Sundays: 11.00am – 4.00pm 
Mondays and bank holidays: Closed

Download the new menu

More information