Bistro forced to close as car crashes through front

The window is boarded up where the vehicle crashed through the building

It was just after 9.30am on Sunday when a Range Rover crashed through the front of The Bistro Bar and Kitchen on Queen Street.

While devastated by the event, Bistro owners Nicky Brooksbank and Tammi Franklin say their primary concern is that nobody was injured.

As chance would have it, they had decided not to open on Sunday after a busy Easter weekend, so there was nobody inside the building at the time of the crash; even the upstairs flat tenant was at work.

Co-owner Nicky Brooksbank is smiling through amid the devastation

Nicky said: “It is not about bricks and mortar, we can sort that, it is about people.

"We send our thoughts to all involved in the accident at our Bistro. At this moment we do not wish to speculate as to what happened and are sending our thoughts of healing to all those involved.”

All three emergency services attended the incident and the road was closed while the male driver and his female passenger were released from the vehicle. Police have confirmed the incident involved just the one vehicle and that the driver was not thought to be seriously injured.

Nicky said: “Things could have been so much worse. If the car had gone two inches to the left it would have hit the main gas pipe and further to the right it would have hit the corner and caused structural damage. It [the vehicle] came right into the building, so the whole of that area of the bistro has been affected. We are currently assessing everything, but thankfully we are insured.”

The first job was to sort the stock. With the power turned off it could not be kept so this has been donated to the primary school and New Life foodbanks.

Nicky and Tammi also say they have been overwhelmed with the support from customers and local residents with their offers of help.

Nicky added: “So many of our lovely friends and customers took time out of their day to send us their thoughts and the offers of help have flooded in. It is early days and we need to sort one thing at a time to decide the way forward, but we know when we are ready we will have a willing workforce to help us.”

However, it is not just the people who have offered help, local businesses have extended the hand of friendship too.

One of those is the Advocate Arms, which has agreed to host the Bistro’s regular quiz nights, the next of which is tomorrow evening (Thursday).

Manager Katie Kireja said: “We are happy to help. We are all part of the Rasen community and we need to help each other out.”