Catering For The Masses

Former Wolves midfielder Micky Holmes is proving himself a dab hand in the kitchen in the catering business he runs with his wife Bernadette.

The couple, having sold a successful pub restaurant they had for over four years near the Leicestershire/Warwickshire border, now operate La Baguette in Leicester city centre – a food outlet serving office workers and train travellers among others.

“We’ve been here for two or three years,” said Holmes, now 42 and one of the Sherpa Van Trophy-winning Wolves side who will be converging on Molineux again on September 25 for a 20th anniversary reunion dinner.

“We’re in Granby Street, close to the railway station and Leicester Mercury offices, and cater for a wide variety of tastes. We do hot and cold snacks – paninis, jacket potatoes, salads, all kind of hams, the lot. It’s certainly not a greasy spoon cafe!

“We’re a bit quieter in the summer but generally do well. I can’t say we’ve had any celebrities in but the courts are just up the road, so a few barristers pop in for their lunch and we do a good trade with people picking up some breakfast on their way to work.

“I have to say Bernadette provides most of the expertise. My role is more helping out there and also doing some driving round to different venues to deliver buffets.

“The pub, near Market Bosworth, proved very successful for us. It was the long hours that got us down in the end – and the fact we didn’t have much time to ourselves.”

Not that Holmes confines himself to one job. He also coaches football several times a week at Leicester College and has taken over this season as manager at Oadby Town, the mid-table Midland Alliance club for whom his 18-year-old son Jordan plays.

Hopefully he is passing on his goal-grabbing knack. In early 1987, he achieved the extraordinary record of scoring in seven successive Wolves matches from midfield, none of them penalties.

He was freed from Molineux in 1988 and continued his playing career with Carlisle, Rochdale, Huddersfield and Torquay before working for several years as a rep in the pub trade.