05/02/2026
This past month, full of worry, change and uncertainty about our future, has unexpectedly given us something rare. The space to pause, reflect and remember why we started.
8 years ago, Smoke and Soul was born in our man cave at home. A bottle of wine deep (The Ned, Sauvignon Blanc — for anyone who enjoys a history lesson🍷), we talked about the food we dreamed of cooking and the events we hoped, one day, to be part of.
The BrewDog AGM at the AECC was the pinnacle event. The “maybe one day” goal.
Little did we know, our application would be accepted far sooner than we were ready for.
That weekend, wildly inexperienced and completely winging it, we served around 2,500 people - all slow-smoked in our back garden on a humble charcoal . It remains to this day, one of the biggest, most terrifying, and most exciting moments of our journey.
We were young, naive and utterly unprepared for what pursuing this full-time would actually demand of us. A year later, we quit our jobs (9months later… COVID entered the chat 🤦🏻♀️)
5½ years on - we’ve now sadly closed that chapter.
Taking time to reflect (and to grieve a venue we poured so much energy, love and life into) has reminded us what’s kept us going through every single knock we’ve taken since that first glass of wine.
It hasn’t been easy.
We’ve worked our arses off.
But we still love sharing our food.
We still love the buzz of service. And we’re still each other’s favourite co-worker.
And that’s why this isn’t the end.
We’ll be firing up again very soon.
We promise. 🙏🏼✨🧡
