Warm glow.

I didn't take my cardigan off today.
This shows two things:
1. It was cool enough this morning to warrant a cardigan and the temperature didn't change.
2. We weren't busy. I didn't run into the kitchen and outside like a mad thing raising my core body temperature enough to need to remove a layer of clothing.

A second mystery shopper report came today. Very pleasing.

On egg shells

A very pleasing Bank Hol Monday.
Not the sunniest or warmest but busy nevertheless. I called in extra family help when folks started ordering lunches at 11.30. We did a roaring trade in panini and jacket potatoes, lattes and hot chocolates. And soup (courgette and tomato).
And cake, of course. Apple cake and Mystery cake took the honours for the day.
There were lovely comments in the visitors' book.
Among them a double act entry from Rebecca & Mum.
Rebecca wrote: The best quiche I have ever tasted.
Mum added: Thanks, what does that say about the quiche I make?

Learning from Madonna

I've been away this week. We went to Yorkshire for some unexpected sunshine. We were forecast rain and instead we did York and Malton and Whitby and Brimham Rocks and Malham in T-shirts. Lovely.
At Malham we had afternoon tea. Had to test out the scones and the idea that in Yorkshire if you order fruit cake they give you a piece of cheese with it. They didn't. But the scones were great.
On the walk to the cove I was thinking about next season (only a few weeks of this one left) and how to make changes without, well, changing. Sort of like Madonna. We need to reinvent ourselves every so often without alienating the core audience who will always love a bit of Vogue and Papa Don't Preach.
I'm not suggesting noisettes d'agneau just yet, but would the Get-Into-the-Groovers like a Pork Pie Platter to play alongside the jolly successful Lightwood Cheddar Ploughmans?

In other news I've been asked to give a talk to the local WI on the lighter side of running a tea rooms.

In hot water.

When we serve tea we deliver two pots to the table. One of tea and one of hot water so that either you can make your tea the strength you'd like it or top up the teapot for an extra cup.
This afternoon a woman strode into the kitchen bearing the hot water pot.
"You forgot to put the teabag in" she said.

Last week a young couple called Eileen over to their table as she was clearing plates.
They were students, about to go off to university.
They felt their education was incomplete.
"We have to ask," they said and gestured at the extra-hot-water pot, "What is this for?"

Pickle

For the first time in weeks people came in complaining of the cold today.
They wanted soup and jacket potatoes. They wanted the door closed in the conservatory. They wanted to sit INSIDE. We took delivery of the chocolate and beetroot brownies. One lady thought the beetroot was cherry.
A man trying to guess the mystery ingredient in the Mystery Cake (courgette, remember?) asked if it was gherkin.....
Said he'd once been given some chocolate and gherkin cake. Now of course gherkin and courgette aren't a million miles apart, but I could only think of the pickled ones my dad used to eat in large numbers.
An 89 year old lady who'd been brought out for her birthday said she was "knocked out" by the experience. Said she didn't know why all her friends wanted to go to Weston on a charabanc. It was full of children. And old people.

Knit Wit

So yesterday nothing was billed and EVERYONE in the world decided to come.
Today we had booked in two coach parties (70 people) three minibuses (20 people + 18 carers) and a knit'n'natter group of 13. Only about a third of the 70 showed up, the minibuses were done and dusted by 12 and the knit'n'natter group's orders for tea and cake (mainly coffee and walnut) weren't difficult. Except in the delivery:
"Coffee and walnut?" asked Jennifer
"No, mine's tea and walnut" came the reply.

I had WAY too many staff on today.
We stood and compared the AS level results of the five 17-year-old members of staff.
We even ate lunch at a reasonable time.
And we cooked too many jacket spuds.
The forecast torrential rain failed to show up but the thought of it was enough to deter.
My family is off to the Green Man festival tomorrow leaving me with the dog for the weekend.

Now wash your hands

The mystery cake continues its success. I'm always astonished that people will order something even when they're not certain of the ingredients. It's obviously a chocolate cake but, as we tell everyone, it has a mystery ingredient to identify (courgette). People guess at nutmeg, chilli, beetroot, cinnamon, almonds...
Over the weekend I delivered a slice to a table. The woman who'd ordered it was otherwise engaged at the time. Her daughter just wanted to check something as her mother had an allergy:
"The mystery ingredient," she asked, "it's not marmite is it?"

Yesterday someone wrote their name, their address and the date in the visitors' book. And then under comments wrote "quite interesting".
What was quite interesting? The Court? The Church? The quiche?
Someone else wrote "Toilets - excellent hygiene"