A Northumberland restaurateur is encouraging his customers to get on their bikes to help raise funds to aid former services personnel.
Having already raised more than £1000, Andy King, who owns The Junction Restaurant and Sidings Bar in Widdrington Station, is holding fund raising events for True Heroes Racing, a charity for injured former services personnel riding British superbikes.
After meeting the team at a race meeting, Andy wanted to help and now raises money in the restaurant to help fund the team. The next event is a BBQ event themed on USA’s Independence Day, which he hopes will attract bikers from all over the North East.
Andy said: “I know people who have been affected by the conflict in Afghanistan, so this charity is very close to my heart. I remember watching the team riding the bikes with ease and couldn’t tell that some of them had suffered horrific injuries.
“Our family fun day on July 4th will have an American theme and it would be great to get a couple of Harley Davidson motorcycles standing outside with the more traditional British, Italian and Japanese bikes that regularly visit us.”
The Junction and Siding Bar is located just three miles from Druridge Bay, one of Northumberland’s most beautiful places, a spot regularly visited by bikers from all over the UK and Europe. To encourage more motorcyclists to visit, Andy has an extensive stock of non-alcoholic drinks as well as speciality teas and coffees.
The food in the restaurant caters for all tastes from burgers to steaks and hot dogs to full roast dinners. Specialities include pulled pork, chicken gyros, American-style burgers made with 100 per cent Northumbrian beef and an amazing chilli cheese Coney hotdog. The Junction caters for lovers of top class steaks, which like all the meat and fish served at the restaurant, are sourced in Northumberland. The bar has a number of large screen TV’s making it an ideal venue to watch the motorcycle racing.
Bar man Dane Dixon who himself rides a GP superbike is delighted that his boss is taking such an interest in the charity. “As a biker myself, I can appreciate the hard work that goes into maintaining and riding the bikes. I’ve a lot of time for the charity and it would be great to see more bikers popping in to support it.”