The owner of a popular Derby restaurant says city audiences are “crying out for” a wider range of activities after her venue hosted its first-ever author interview event for Derby Book Festival.
Annie Spaziano, who operates Annie’s Burger Shack in Friary Street, believes the response to the event, which was held last week, has revealed a demand in the city for discussions, presentations and live TED talks.
The event was one of the highlights of the nine-day Derby Book Festival and starred Channel 4 and Sky Sports journalist Lee McKenzie talking about her book, Inside F1, with former local sports reporter Kerry Ganly, now a social media and public relations manager at city PR agency Penguin PR.
It attracted a near sell-out audience of more than 100 people, including representatives from local businesses belonging to Marketing Derby, who heard about Lee’s career as a journalist reporting on Formula 1 and rubbing shoulders with drivers including Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.
The audience were served with burgers and drinks brought direct to their tables during the talk, which was the latest in a series of events held at the restaurant as part of Annie’s’ move into live shows such as film screenings, wrestling, drag bingo and comedy nights.
More events are planned for this year, including an appearance from Welsh rappers Goldie Lookin’ Chain and comedy from TV’s Phoenix Nights psychic Clinton Baptiste, but Annie says that the success of the book festival has given her a glimpse of what other events might bring people through the door.
She said: “Lee and Kerry’s F1 Derby Book Festival event was excellent and it was lovely to see everyone enjoying themselves, with many saying that they’d never visited us before and admiring our beautiful building, which is a converted church.
“The number of people who attended and the success of the event, plus other author talks which took place as part of the book festival, shows me Derby is crying out for events with interesting speakers, who could talk about their careers, give a TED talk or get involved in a live debate.
“It’s not something you see very often but it brings in audiences who maybe aren’t being catered for at the moment. We need to get more people into the city centre and, now we’ve hosted our first book festival event, I’d love to hold more events like it at other times of the year.”
Founded in Nottingham in 2009, Annie’s Burger Shack opened its doors to its Derby restaurant, which is based in a Grade-II-listed former First Church of Christ Scientist church building – in 2018.
Its elaborate burgers, which come complete with names such as the Elvis burger, the North Carolina and the Lemmy, has helped it to build up a loyal following in the city, with all of its burgers available in vegan, veggie and meaty.
To find out about other events at Annie’s restaurants in Derby and Nottingham visit www.anniesburgershack.com
