12/09/2026
Our Little Pickle story 🩷
We are Andrew and Karen and back in 2011, when pregnant with our second daughter, we literally started building our dream.
We chose Boscombe as we lived there and built the cafe from scratch, with a lot of hard work, determination and lots of weekend help from friends and family.
We loved hospitality, Andrew’s mum, Virginia, was an amazing cook, her dinners were legendary with everything home grown, home pickled and homemade. My parents ran Wokingham Town Football Club, where I spent my childhood, behind the bar serving drinks, making half time sandwiches and waitressing for dinner and dances. We grew up around food and people, it’s in our DNA.
We opened Little Pickle in Boscombe and slowly built it into so much more than a café. We wanted community to be at the heart of it. Our team became our second family, our regulars became friends, and we loved creating events and little moments that brought people together.
Then came lockdown.
Like so many small businesses, we struggled to find our feet again afterwards. Times were tough, we had a young family and, if we’re honest, there were moments when we wondered whether it was time to walk away from hospitality altogether.
And then we found this beautiful place by the river or it found us.
Three years ago, we took another leap of faith and Little Pickle at the Mill was born.
We’ve found our happy place again. We’ve met so many wonderful people, built another amazing team, made new memories and somewhere that feels like home.
It hasn’t always been easy, like all family businesses we’ve had our ups and downs.
But looking back to that young couple in 2011, building a dream that nobody else could see… I think they’d be pretty proud of how far we’ve come. ❤️
Here’s to the next chapter of Little Pickle. 🥂
Thank you to everyone who has been part of our story. You really are what makes it all worthwhile 🩷
