vinnies – loaded sandwiches at the goods yard

Vinnies serves loaded sandwiches in The Goods Yard at Folkestone Harbour.  Using fresh, locally sourced meat to make juicy, dirty, loaded sandwiches. Vinnies is named after Barney Howard’s dog, a German Shepherd, who can be seen helping with the marketing.  Barney is no stranger to Folkestone Harbour having set up his first business – Barney And The Pizza – here in 2020 during Covid.  Now he has Barneys, Slices – pizza by the slice with beer and cocktails, half way up the Arm, and Vinnies in The Goods Yard.  Folkelife spoke to him about his empire.

“We’ve been here at Folkestone Harbour since the Drive In cinema for Covid in 2020.  Back then, we had our horsebox and delivered wood-fired pizza to the punters watching the films.  My pizza business has been running for 8 years, and we do a lot of events still, but it’s great to have some established places here at Folkestone Harbour.  So, along with Barney And The Pizza in The Goods Yard, we’re also offering loaded, dirty sandwiches in there too.  The Goods Yard is full of different street food venues and you’re not coming here for a tidy sandwich on two slices of white bread.  You’re coming here for a feast of flavours and juicy mouthfuls. 

“Our produce is important to us so we use Turners, the butchers at Bekesbourne, for our supplies. We know, from our experience at many places over the years, that it’s important for our customers to know that everything we prepare is done in front of them.  When you’re eating our food, it’s freshly made for you, not sitting around waiting for someone to come along.  We’ll have four sandwiches – pulled pork porchetta, fried chicken, beef brisket and halloumi for the veggie option.”

slow-cooked to perfection

“Our venues are quite small spaces, so the cooking of the beef brisket and pulled pork will happen of site.  Those are both recipes that take 24 hours of long, slow cooking. We make sure that you can see the whole process of what we’re doing in our huts so you know where our food comes from.  Also, it’s good to have a concise menu, we do this with our pizzas too; there are 4 or 5 options and if you can’t choose something from that list then we’re doing something wrong.  But also, you know that our ingredients are fresh and not hanging around for the one person who fancies that. 

“We’re also adaptable with the sandwich option and you can have the fillings on loaded fries if you don’t fancy bread.  There’s also a dessert option of loaded cookie dough which just hits the spot.”

variety is the spice of life

“What’s good about being based at Folkestone Harbour is you can specialise in two or three fantastic products because the rest of the traders are offering the variety.  And we don’t have much cross over – there are pizzas at Brewing Brothers but we have different toppings so sales haven’t been impacted by those guys being here. 

“We’ve been here for 5 years of the 10 that the Harbour has been running as an entertainment space and it gets better and better each year.  The free films now are a regular feature each Friday from May to September, when we started they were once a month or so.  Everything keeps moving forward and looking more established.  The Goods Yard looks totally different from the unpainted huts that were there when we first started.”

Folkestone is the place to be

“If you go to other places around the coastline you don’t find the variety of food on offer as we have here.  The site is big enough to entertain many people, with many different food and drink options.  We’ve been planning our expansion to other business ventures for a while, but you have to have the right place to sell what you’re making.  Folkestone is the right place for us.  It gives us the options of when to trade and what foods and drinks to offer.  Come and find us and watch us at work, then try a slice of pizza or sandwich and you won’t be disappointed.”