Plaque up, Fatty

Originally posted on IsleOne

Thursday, September 16th, 2010
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Serving up 48oz steaks probably isn’t the brightest business model for a restaurant, even if you utilize one of Thanet’s less salubrious butchers shops; but whether the collapse of Fatty Towers was down to spiralling catering costs or an overestimation of the nation’s love of lard remains something of a mystery.

Swinging open its doors for a couple of years in the mid-90s, this was the bouncing brainchild of larger than life Bad Manners frontman Buster Bloodvessel. Taking heart from the success of his Club 18 – 30 Stone dining venture along the coast in Ramsgate, Buster set to work on a seaside complex dedicated to serving Britain’s most bulky away from the prying eyes of the Health Police.

Legend has it that customers had to suffer the indignity of potentially humiliating weigh-in upon entrance, with svelte diners who failed to make an impression on the scales sent packing. Heavyweights lucky enough to make the grade sat down to enjoy the delights of the “Unexploded Bomb” – 20oz of chicken breast stuffed with garlic butter – and the “Lard Arse Pudding”, a huge steak and kidney effort with added smoked oysters and a calorie count which probably nudged five figures.

The budding hotelier, real name Douglas Trendle, even took sensible measures to customize the hotel to cope with the ample girth of its patrons. Extra-large beds and baths were installed, and direct access to the kind folk from the St John’s Ambulance was provided in case of a gastronomic overload. There was also entertainment, including guided waddles around Margate and an esteemed Belly of the Year competition.

In these more enlightened times and with a posh new art gallery in the pipeline, Margate’s perhaps a little embarrassed about its recent history as a Mecca for the morbidly obese. But given Buster’s long-standing association with the town – Bad Manners even sponsored the football club at one point in the ‘90s – surely the time’s right to embrace this quirk of history and whack up a blue plaque in the hotel’s honour?

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