The community has paid tribute to beloved Deansgate Kitchen owner Jonathan Kaye after he collapsed and died suddenly aged just 59.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Hello, my name's Luke Patrick, I'm a journalist for the Blackpool Gazette.
00:04There's been an outpouring of emotion after the business owner of the Deansgate kitchen, Jonathan Kaye,
00:09collapsed in the town centre and tragically passed away.
00:13Many local business owners have paid tribute to Mr Kaye, and this is what they had to say.
00:19So how did you know that it was Jonathan Kaye from the three-digit number?
00:24To be fair, it wasn't so much knowing him, it was more, you know, passing him and saying hello in the morning.
00:31He seemed like a very nice fella, happy to interact with anybody.
00:36Yeah, it was more just a polite, you know, hello, have a good day sort of thing.
00:44You said just before that he was like the first person there at the last minute,
00:52Yeah, absolutely. So I usually arrive about 8.15 every day, and he was there,
00:59and you could see he'd been there for, easy, half an hour to an hour before I'd even got to work,
01:05and I considered me getting home quite early.
01:08And then I usually go round to the shop there at, say, three, four o'clock to get a little drink.
01:13Still there, last one locking the door, sending his sign round, and off he goes.
01:18Obviously a hard worker, everybody round here said the same thing, you know.
01:21He was always there, he was very much a sort of mainstay of Deansgate, Topping Street, Edward Street.
01:30Yeah, yeah, the amount of regulars, you know, you could walk past there any day,
01:34you'd see the same people sitting there eating, you know.
01:36They obviously weren't sure the food would do half of that job,
01:40but I think he was definitely a big reason as well that they would be there.
01:49So what was it like to describe him?
01:55Good, yeah, he was always clean, he was well kept, you know, he did what he did, and he did it well.
02:00He was obviously passionate about his business, and, you know, it's a shame really.
02:05It really is a shame, because unfortunately,
02:08not many people are proud of what they do nowadays around here,
02:11because of the reputation Blackpool's got, but with places like that,
02:14and people like Jonathan that, you know, may potentially not be a business there anymore,
02:19it really is a shame, so.
02:26Polite, can I just use hard-working as one word?
02:30Polite, hard-working, mainstay.
02:34So how did you know Jonathan Kaye and the Deansgate kitchen business?
02:41Just through fellow traders, really.
02:45He used to wave at me every morning when I went past in my car.
02:49He's just friendly, really, you know, friendly competition.
02:55Did you go to the Deansgate kitchen frequently?
02:59I didn't go in, because obviously I've got my own business here, so.
03:07I've chatted to him on many occasions, yeah.
03:11What did he, how did he seem? How would you describe him?
03:16He's a very nice man.
03:19Seems to have had his, he's got his head screwed on.
03:22He seems to know what he's doing.
03:27Yeah, could be a bit fiery at times, but, you know, he's just a, yeah, nice person.
03:35Yeah, how did you find out?
03:39Well, one of his, a customer came in a couple of weeks ago and said,
03:45Jon from the Deansgate kitchen only does me two hash browns, a slice of toast and a fried egg and a glass of milk for £4.
03:53Can you, could you do the same for me?
03:55So I said, yeah, yeah, of course I can.
03:57I said, well, why are you not in Deansgate kitchen then?
03:59He said, he's died.
04:03So he's been coming in here ever since.
04:05Yeah.
04:07What, you said quite a lot of customers have been coming in here, coming in here from the Deansgate kitchen, like you just said.
04:13What have you been hearing from them about the situation or how they're reacting to it or anything like that?
04:18Well, Paul used to own the barbershop across the road, was very good friends with Jon and his family.
04:29So when I put the tribute on Facebook, he phoned me straight away and said, Robert, is this true? Is this true?
04:34So I said, yes, I've just been told.
04:38So he said, I'll have to go, I'll have to ring his wife and find out what happened.
04:42Later on that day, he told me that Jon had collapsed in Cedar Square.
04:48Paramedics brought him around and then he died of a blood clot to the heart later on.
04:55Do you know when this was? Do you know the date?
04:57I don't. It's got to be at least two weeks, a couple of weeks ago, yeah.
05:08How would you describe him?
05:13By the way, I just want to make it clear, obviously, for the subject matter, if you need to take a minute or pause the interview or anything like that, that's perfectly fine.
05:22But if you were to describe him in three words, what would they be?
05:31Just a genuine nice businessman.
05:52So is this going to be on the radio or something?
05:57This will be an article on the website and then this will be a video that will be compiled with a couple of other things and added to the hospital as well.
06:05You mentioned just before we started this that he was planning to put balloons up.
06:11Yeah, well, the salad bowl, the veg shop here, I've chatted to them about Jon dying and stuff.
06:21And he said, yeah, he was planning for his 60th to put balloons inside a cafe.
06:29But he was 59 and he never made it.