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Five years of serving burgers in Preston was celebrated at All Hopes No Promises this week – but it’s been far from a smooth ride.
Michael Evans, now 38, known to most as Mickey, re-entered hospitality with then-partner Gage Dunstan in April 2017 with Pastels in Cleveleys. At the time, both had been working delivering Chinese food.
That business would have been familiar for anyone who has ever been to All Hopes No Promises. Modern deco, burgers and video games. Later the same year, they moved Pastels to Blackpool.
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Since then, Mickey has opened Smashed at the Miller Arcade during a pandemic, opened a cocktail bar called All Hopes No Promises at Guildhall Street and closed both and relocated to St Wilfrid Street under the All Hopes name after aggressive legal threats from US superchain Smashburger. All Hopes, doing both the burgers and the cocktails is also open in Lancaster.
He was in the middle of dealing with those legal threats the last time he spoke to Blog Preston – he looks happier in August 2025.
He told Blog Preston: “We moved to St Wilfrid Street partly due to the court case and went with the AHNP name. We have an agreement where we don’t use the name Smashed anymore.
“We always wanted to change to All Hopes because of how well it was doing in Lancaster and it’s working better but Preston has been hit hard.
“I think hospitality at the minute with the rates is in a bad place. Preston has a lot to offer – with the new places opening like Animate. But, we’re in a good place compared to a year ago.
“Lancaster is a different story. Double busy up there. Preston is a chain city centre. You walk past McDonald’s and it’s got 40-50-year-olds in.
“There’s a lot of positives. We have a lot more customers in this location. We are busier than our last location. But we have to keep making more custom as the cost of everything increases.
“We stay positive and plough through. We’ve probably had our best year for customers this year. And it’s hard to judge, sometimes Friday can be a bit rubbish but you have a busy midweek. But you can’t manage a perfect line of goodness all the time.”
All Hopes No Promises celebrated five years of serving burgers in Preston (including as Smashed) with 100 free burgers on Tuesday (12 August). On Saturday, they raised around £400 for charity.
Wander through any town or city centre and you can pick up a burger without much trouble. Preston has had its own fair share of places that capitalised on a surge in demand for a better quality of product than you might get from the US giants that arguably started with We Don’t Give A Fork in 2017.
Mickey said: “All our meat comes from Sam at the market. We use Banana King for all our fruit and veg. We try to buy local as best we can. That’s part of the issue with all these new chains – they aren’t spending money locally.
“People went through a phase of opening burger places thinking they were going to be a millionaire and it was never going to happen. But a lot of them never got the consistency right and that’s what it’s about.”
All Hopes No Promises has offers on at various points but the consistent one is a lunchtime offer of a burger, fries and soft drink for £8 or £7 for students. He points out it isn’t much dearer than a Big Mac meal but you get to sit in, be served and have a better product.
There’s also a new menu on the horizon – the first big overhaul in five years – but they declined to share any information about that until next month.
But rising costs in the industry mean that trading conditions are difficult. All Hopes No Promises are doing okay, according to Mickey, but there were 374 estimated closures in the UK in the first half of 2025.
It’s pressure that means they recently took the decision not to expand.
He said: “We were going to open in Blackpool and I was excited to do it because I started there. But the costs were too high – including the rent for what it was.
“We don’t know what’s around the corner in terms of the government.
“When I do a project, it’s usually 2-3 months where I don’t socialise with friends and the businesses I’ve got lose focus as I try to get the new place open.
“It’s so dear and I don’t want to be spending £80,000. I’ve got a friend who has a pizza place called Stefani’s and he had Hip Hop Chicken next door. He was saying the prices for pizza ingredients are lower and oil is so expensive that focusing on pizza makes sense for them.
“The cost of oil and electricity is ridiculous. So I thought instead I’m going to focus on what I’ve got and actually enjoy my life.”
He has, however, opened a new venture in Bispham.
He adds: “I’ve opened a bar in Bispham called Tide & Tipple – we just do cheese boards, wine and beer and it’s a lot easier.”
A five-year journey in Preston for All Hopes No Promises, and Mickey, has ultimately resulted in a venue that serves some of the best burgers in the North West.
The venues in both Preston and Lancaster are rated as the best burgers in their respective cities.
He finishes with: “I’m in a much better place mentally and financially now compared to a year ago.”
Blog Preston is spotlighting local hospitality businesses who are delivering excellence in challenging circumstances. Want to chat? Contact luke@blogpreston.co.uk.
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