After the global fame of the past few days, it’s business at usual at the Jason Donervan kebab van on Queens Road. For owner Mustafa - better known as ‘Jason’ to his customers - it’s definitely the calm after the social media storm.
But one thing has changed since the mobile food business appeared on Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway with a surprise visit from the ‘real’ Jason Donovan. After it went viral on social media, Mustafa and his team have been inundated with all sorts of requests.
So much so that before I can talk to the kebab king, I have to show my ID. Once my press card has been flashed and I’ve been given the once over, it's time to talk behind the now-famous kebab van.
READ MORE: New Italian restaurant announces opening at Wapping Wharf
A quietly spoken Turkish dad of four, Turkish-born Mustafa says he had no idea Jason Donovan was going to visit his business that night. He actually thought Ant and Dec themselves were going to turn up.
“We had to wait around for hours for the few minutes that were broadcast live and it was very tiring. Because we weren’t serving the public for that time, we were losing business - actually, they have said they’ll pay us for any lost income but they haven’t yet.”
The live broadcast featured presenter Andi Peters but even he didn’t reveal who the mystery guess would be. Mustafa and his team were as surprised as the millions watching on TV when the Australian singer suddenly got out of a limo and walked up to order his kebab.
“I couldn’t believe it - nobody knew Jason was going to turn up,” says Mustafa. “The ITV production team had visited me a couple of months ago and asked me to do a live show but I said we didn’t have the facilities as we were only a kebab van but they wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer.”
Mustafa says he gave Donovan the ‘large mixed’ kebab - at £7.50, the most expensive item on the menu - and he had ‘a few mouthfuls’ before having a chat off-camera. He also said he has plans to come back for more.
“He was very nice and not at all starry, he was very polite. He said he has wanted to visit the van for ages and he apologised that he hadn’t.
“He said it was nice to meet us and that he liked his kebab. He also said he hopes to come back when he’s next in Bristol doing a show, perhaps in September, but just privately and with no publicity!
“It was great that he visited us but I don’t feel famous. People keep saying they saw us on the telly but I just keep on doing my job and working the same hours until 5am.”
But what might come as a surprise, or even a disappointment, to Donovan is that Mustafa didn't actually name the business after the former Neighbours star. The ‘Jason’ actually refers to the owner, who launched the business on Millennium night, 31 December 1999.
“My first customer was a university girl who said her dad’s name was Jason and that I looked like him. She kept calling me Jason and then everybody did so the name stuck.
“I’m from Turkey so I didn’t know anything about Jason Donovan for the first five years and I had no idea what people were laughing about. They kept asking me ‘where’s Kylie?’ and I didn’t know what the joke was.
“After a few years my English was getting better and my wife was English so she explained that my van was named after a famous guy. I prefer “Jason’ to my real name now!”
With help from his 20-year-old son, JJ, Mustafa and his team are busy again after the pandemic. They were forced to close for 18 months and are only just recovering.
“We were closed for much of the pandemic and it was very tough. We didn’t get grants as we're a van not a shop so my wife and son had to work part-time to support the family - we haven’t had a holiday for four years.
“Business is not what it was before but it’s getting there. People come here for the food and if the food wasn’t good they wouldn’t come back
“We sell good quality food at cheap prices because most of our customers are students who don’t have much money. But they’re very polite and don’t give me any hassle, even at 5am in the morning, however drunk they are they’ve been good to me.
“A lot of them are the same age as my children so I keep an eye out for them. If we see somebody in trouble because they’ve had too much to drink, we'll call them a taxi or an ambulance.
“We even have a locker for all the lost mobile phones and return them when they come back. The university students have been good to us and they trust me like their dad.”
