'Gordon Ramsay' seal of approval for the town’s food and drink venues

A Gordon Ramsay look-a-like has been seen visiting restaurants and bars in the town last Thursday, as part of the launch of a brand-new Food and Drink Trail for the town centre.

Visitors to Tamworth would have been mistaken to think that the Gordon impersonator was the real deal, as body double Martin Jordan, stepped into town to visit establishments and give his take on what eating and drinking venues are on offer.

A series of images and videos have been captured that will help promote a map trail, social media coverage and an app that will create an Augmented Reality Trail. The map itself will be available to download from the Visit Tamworth website or people can obtain a z-map that they can collect from the Tamworth Information Centre in the Assembly Rooms, plus restaurants and bars in the town.

59 eating and drinking establishments are identified on the trail that offer customer seating. The aim of the app is to give visitors a snapshot of where the businesses are located and what they offer.

Tamworth Borough Council launched a new website last year to bring together a number of exciting projects for the town centre regeneration under the banner of ‘Transforming Tamworth.’ This includes details of the Government award of £67,455 from the European Regional Development Fund’s Welcome Back Fund, to help support the wider reopening of the town centre through a variety of activities.

In November 2021, a new 'Historic' Augmented Reality Trail that showcases Tamworth’s rich history, went ‘live’ around Tamworth town centre, as part of the funding being spent. This was the first of a series of trails now being bought to life.

Tamworth Borough Council commissioned The Peel Entertainment Group to create the trail, bringing Tamworth’s immense history to life in the palm of your hand. Peel are now developing this app further to include the Food and Drink Trail.

The Welcome Back Fund is also being invested in promotional campaigns to support the town’s business community and our town centre offer. This will include improvements to the Visit Tamworth website, new promotional material, additional deep cleans, painting and new bins. 

The Welcome Back Fund is an extension of the Reopening High Streets Safely Fund which supported a number of activities in the town in 2020 to help businesses adapt to the pandemic and its restrictions.

Andrew Barratt, Chief Executive for Tamworth Borough Council, said: “We’re delighted to have been awarded the money from the Welcome Back Fund to purely focus on helping local economies to bounce back after the pandemic and encourage people back to their high streets.

“The criteria was quite rigid and the activities we’ve come up with had to meet those and we are excited to now launch our second town centre AR Trail and be able to but the ‘spotlight’ on our excellent restaurants and bars.

“We’ve got until March this year to spend this money, so we have been working with businesses and partners to create this Food and Drink Trail and promotional videos of our town.”