What did you do Tuesday?

Work. No thanks. Then Damien Jurado at Borderline. Pretty heavy session. Highlight was Ohio. Rehearsals for Departure.

Crail Slice of Life – Justin Eldridge

This is how they do…

Latte Fernandez & Wells style. You try to move on, try something new, but they simply draw you back in. We love these guys.

Porridge-gate part II

I carry on with my day. The incident even a distant memory and then this:

“Hi Dominic,

You don’t mention which cafe you visit? The problem we’ve had is trying to maintain a workable menu. Ideally we’d like to be able to keep the whole menu on, but to do this it affects our ability to maintain the quality.

It’s one of the negatives of associating yourself so strongly with a one of the meals of the day. We have to make sure we play to our strengths but also have to make sure that people keep coming in after midday. So across our 3 cafes there’s certain dishes we close down at certain times of the day or week just make sure we have a workable menu so we can control our waste/costs and also maintain the quality. If Gordon Ramsey came into our cafes he’d look at me, shake his head and tell me we have too many things on our menu (he’s made a whole lot of money doing that!). Anyway, so through experience we whittle down those dishes that don’t sell at certain times of the day, porridge after 12 for example. It’s not to say people never want porridge after 12, your point in case, it’s just demand isn’t there to make it viable.

Whilst I appreciate this doesn’t really change things I hope it explains why.

Regards
Jonathan
The BC”

Jonathan makes such a strong case that I’m completely conscious-stricken by my previous email. Suddenly I love this guy and as a result, I love The Breakfast Club. I respond in the only way possible:

“Jonathan,

Thanks for the reply. The cafe in question was the Soho branch. I’ve just read back my original email, and would like to apologise if it sounded slightly discourteous; I was feeling the strain of not being able to have my porridge and eat it, as it were.

Your explanation makes complete sense. As a colleague pointed out upon my arrival at work, who eats porridge at noon?

Your place is great. And like you say, it doesn’t change things, but perhaps it’s not your menu that needs changing, but my approach to wanting porridge at a weird time.

Thanks for your time.

Dom”

Porridge-gate part I

Yesterday (Wednesday) I headed round to The Breakfast Club on D’Arblay Street for some porridge. For the second time in three days they have been unable to serve me as they had turned the porridge pot off and so the porridge was cold. I head back to the office rather despondent; some might say disillusioned by the porridge scene.

So I checked out the website and I emailed my suggestion.

“Dear breakfast people

Any chance you can leave your porridge pot turned on all day please? Just thought with the place being called The Breakfast Club, and porridge being breakfast, it might work…

Dom”

What followed was quite special…

The debate: Soho’s best coffee

Contender number two: Fernandez & Wells – Beak Street.

The beverage: Latte.

Three hundred and sixty-five days

Headed to the Village Deli to get some takeaway breakfast. Waffles with maple syrup, fruit and cream. Heavy in all senses.

Needed a quick livener from next door while I was waiting. Double espresso time.

And so began the day. We headed into town and checked in here (St Martin’s Lane). Went for lunch (Bodean’s – where else? (See previous posts below)). Bought Alice a dress to wear out for dinner, and headed here (Curzon Soho) to see this (Mesrine: Killer Instinct).

Later, we headed to Bar Italia for another livener. Double espresso again. Always works at Bar Italia. Then at 9pm we moved on to dinner here (Andrew Edmunds). I ate veal steak in a cream sauce. Probably the best steak I’ve eaten. Alice had a pork chop with some amazing potato treat. The wine was amazing, as was the organic elderflower juice. The white chocolate and pecan cheesecake worked too.

Sunday morning. Breakfast here (The Breakfast Club Soho – D’Arblay Street)

I ate this

Three hundred and sixty-five days. The Tomses.

The debate: Soho’s best coffee

Contender number one: Milkbar – Bateman Street.

The beverage: Flat White.

The locals

Thursday’s walk home all got a bit fresh. Stepping to the wrong corner always does.

The cone

This is all going pretty well with the new filter papers.