IT'S the family firm celebrating 50 years of fabulous food and a warm welcome in its chain of cafés.
Boswells Café, in Eastleigh's Swan Centre, became the first of the 18 eateries in the group to host a special celebratory event.
Charlotte Jones, one of the owners of Boswells, told the Daily Echo: "We are holding tea parties in all of our 18 cafés to thank our loyal customers for supporting us and enabling us to be where we are today.
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My brother Tim Burn, one of the directors, was in Eastleigh to thank everyone himself and to celebrate with them."
The tea parties taking place throughout October and November follow BOSFEST, a summer festival for staff, which took place in June.
Back in 1972, Livings, a small bakery in Didcot, Oxfordshire, was purchased by Peter Burn, the grandfather of the current management team. Jeremy, their father, joined soon after and took the reins the following year, opening the first hot bread bakery in Reading.
Jeremy trialled the company's first coffee lounge, in the Brunel Centre in Swindon, in 1978. It was a visionary moment, ahead of today's daily coffee culture. Princess Anne visited the following year.
In 1986, Jeremy proved himself a pioneer of shopping centre eateries, rolling out five editions of Le Café, A Taste of France, including in Eastleigh in 1988 and Andover in 1990.
The company was rebranded as Boswells in 1996 and opened its Portsmouth location in 2011.
Brothers Nick, Matt and Tim Burn cycled 400 miles in four days in 2014, visiting all the company's locations and raising £50,000 for the Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund in memory of their father, Boswells founder Jeremy.
Despite the challenges of the Covid pandemic, the 18th Boswells was opened in Cwmbran in 2020.
The Eastleigh café, like all the others in the group, is renowned for its varied and delicious range of freshly prepared food and drinks and home-from-home vibe. Everything is made fresh to order and staff try hard to accommodate all requests. There's something for everyone, whether an all-day breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea or just a quick snack or drink.
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