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Well here we are in the thick of summer again. We know every one is being very careful now and we are having to fight tooth and nail for business. We are very grateful that over the years we have built up quite a wide customer base and the loyalty of you all has (so far) seen us through. We hope we are not being complacent and are responding to the new trading conditions. I have taken the liberty of enclosing our Summer Pocket Saver menu available every lunchtime and evening until 7.30pm (Fri & Sat 7pm). The order has to be in the kitchen by the time limit stated, so if you want to book a table for the offer, please book at least 15 minutes before the time limit and let us have your order in time.

I also think that we in our business have to realise that there has been a fundamental shift in people’s eating out habits as a result of the economic situation. We’d better get used to it! We are planning new menus. I do hope that we can do so without upsetting too many of you. Whenever we take a dish off the menu, we get complaints. Our problem is that we have too many menu’s around for lunchtime!! We need to consolidate them somehow!!

The 1999 vintage of Fontodi's iconic 100% Sangiovese wine 'Flaccianello' was served to the world's most powerful people at the official G20 dinner in London on 1st April. The menu for the dinner, hosted by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at No10 Downing Street, was created by chef Jamie Oliver.

We love Fontodi Chianti. I’d love to try and sell you some Flaccianello, but its a touch expensive. In addition to Giovanne Monetti’s chianti, we sell his wondeful sauvignon blanc, Merrigio. It’s brilliant. Different from the New Zealand Marlborough wine, it has a crisper edge, and such a long finish.

On the subject of great winemakers; some of you will recall Stephanie Toole being here for a dinner. She makes wine in Claire Valley in South Australia. I was lucky to be invited to a small lunch near Liverpool Street with her and we had a good gossip. She served us her Riesling, Semillon, Cab/Merlot, Shiraz and her eponymous Cordon cut Riesling pudding wine which is winning awards all over the world. If fact, I have just recently seen great write ups for all of her wines and rightly so. She already has a great reputation and it is growing all the time. She has invited me to a party; in Tuscany at Fontodi would you believe. She and the Monetti family have become friends and they all love a party.

I must really apologise to the people who wanted to tell me that not all fish ‘n chip shops are as poor as the one I mentioned in my last newsletter. They have a lovely proper Fish ‘n Chip shop in Grays. I love fish ‘n chips and even on my diet manage to convince myself that sometimes we have to indulge ourselves to allow it sometimes. My local chippie, Oldhams is for me, excellent but I’m always on the lookout. Those of you who have eaten from a "chipie" in Scotland will know that we use small haddock and the batter is usually thinner and very crisp. It takes a really good operator to beat that down here and some just about do so. But I guess its a memory lane thing as well!

Julie Bell.

Julie has decided to retire would you believe!

Having spent 30 years down here, Julie decided earlier in the year to hang up her serving cloth. Such a shock to the place I can tell you. How ever are we going to get through Christmas? We have had some fantastic people down here who have gone onto retire, but Julie leaving seems to have left more of a gap. I know we will be fine, but it is so strange not to have her here. When we have been caught out in an unexpected rush, Julie just went round like a train and somehow got everyone served. Such a great work ethic. Julie’s kids all worked here washing up, food assistant and Angela (still here) became a waitress some many years ago after serving her time in the kitchen. Julie and her husband Mike have given their kids a great work ethic. Angela’s daughter, Alex, is on stand-by to start as a Saturday girl, as her mum and grandma did. The Bell tradition will hopefully, be here as long as the Pipe is. But we will still miss Julie.

We are deeply grateful for all Julie’s hard work over the years.

All is not lost however, ... we still have the lovely Heather!

Three cheers for craftsmen.

In these tight economic times, we at home were saddened that our lovely sofa was looking a bit sad. We hadn’t realised it was some 20 years old! It is a great sofa with a full proper frame. We could not see one which was anywhere nearly as good, so Sue decided to get it re-upholstered by a local craftsman, Paul at Upholstery Workshop in Clifftown Mews. What a brilliant idea. We ought not to throw these pieces out. The quality of the work is excellent and we have our sofa back to what it was. I am comfortable in the knowledge that it will clearly outlive me! I think I probably need a bit of re-upholstering myself!

Looking for a gift or birthday idea? We are delighted at the up take of our Gift Vouchers. We do them in the form of a letter and we personalise them and they can be for any amount you want. So, if you are stuck. I’ve enclosed an example. Give us a call.

Whilst on the hard sell front, I have re-structured our Wine Club format. We used to do 12 bottles every two months and over the years for various reasons, it has not been the right format for us. For us, there are a limited number of wines we want to sell at under £7. We access some really lovely wines here and have decided to "up the ante" not by charging more, but istead of sending out 12 bottles, we are only sending out up to 6. The last one only had 5 bottles and the August one is again only 5 bottles. But what a five bottle selection it is. I have enclosed a copy of the last delivery as well as the one due out in August. If you wish to join, call me asap. These are special occasion wines, not recommended to drink whilst watching Coronation Street or polishing the brasses.

We had a Health & Safety visit. Ahh! it beggars belief sometimes. Our ladder, fully EC rated and approved for up to 150 kilos, doesn’t have a UK safety sticker on it. It is felt that the UK rules on ladders are more stringent than EC rules. Our ladders are a top make, comply with all the EC rules, is badged up accordingly and we still fall foul. We keep it in the store but we have been asked to have another (smaller one), in the restaurant area in case we are too lazy to go to the store for it and use a chair instead. I am setting up a committee to report into it and advise where in the restaurant area we can put it so when we lazy chaps go to the store for a replacement light bulb, forget to bring the ladder, we will always have one within our reach. I’m weary just thinking about it all, but also we are advised that our chairs have to have a larger floor footprint than the seat area to stop them tipping over if someone leans back or to one side. We have just bought 8 new chairs. Guess what? They all fail!! As it happens, almost all of the others pass.

I was going to rant, but I think I’ll just eat some glass instead, more fun. I must advise strongly that you don’t take that remark seriously. Your health will be at risk if you eat glass. You may die .... Lord, save me from myself. Nearly as bad as banning fresh flowers from the hospital for fear of infection.

I think I’m depressed now. Something more cheerful is required. Ah yes. There are some fantastic lunch bargains in the serious London restaurants. Ramsay at Claridges, £30. Marcus Wareing £35 and almost all of the Michelin starred restaurants are similarly priced. We did Claridges and it was brilliant. I hit the wine list unfortunately. But you don’t have to.

More Cheer.

Martin Day (oh he of the Pipe in a previous life) and I went head to head in one of our wine challenges for a wine group. We had to put up 4 wines each under certain categories. The group had no idea which wine was from whom. They just voted for the best wine in each category. It was such good fun and the group was really up for it. Who won? Suffice to say my crown is intact!!

Thats better.

I’ll sign off now.

Its ME!

Steve

LATEST EVENTS LIST.

Finding good Californian wine is very easy. Finding very good Californian wine at a decent price is extremely difficult. I need the trip so we’ll do it. Just help me make it economical by booking this event. I need 200 bookings in that case! I have a menu of Poached Pacific Wild Salmon with oven roasted cherry tomatoes, A rib eye steak with rocket & spinach balsamic dressed salad and a few French Fries!! We don’t do French Fries or any other kind of "chips". But we will on that night. Twice cooked and crispy. Vanilla ice cream, Chocolate Brownie, with Jack Daniels sticky toffee and peanut sauce to finish you off with a sigh. 4 wines here You’re having the JD in the pudding!

Probably my favourite wine region in France. Its lovely country. The Voges mountains seem to protect it from the weather that can make northern France a bit dreary sometimes. It’s as though you come through the drizzle for miles, go through a tunnel into sunshine, birds and vines. Alsace is the thin strip between France and Germany, that has been fought over more than almost any other part of Europe. The crossroads for invading armies. Because the wine laws state that all Alsacian wine has to be in ‘flute’ bottles, some folk mistakenly think the wine is German (or Germanic) and will be sweet. Well theses six wines will all be dry. I will serve you a red if I can find a good example, if not they will all be white. There are 5 main grape varieties plus Pinot Noir for the red. What is for sure, they will all be good>

I fancy that delicious spicy lemon dressing that Nobu does. We’ll do it with salmon pieces and serve it warm on the salad. To follow, sliced Roast Pork wich will be marinated in soy & garlic, then dusted with Chinese 5 spice. The marinade will convert to a sauce. Served just with Pak Choi & Braised Rice. Next; 3 king prawns pan fried, served with pineapple chilli jam and noodles tossed with bamboo shoot and bean sprouts. That should do most honest folk. Then I’m thinking Gooseberry Fool. I’ll serve you 4 wines with this meal, all for the savoury courses. Oh to hell with it. A tad of Moscato d’Asti. The scrummy sweet effervescent wine.

How this region is booming. Southern Italy has become such a hot bed for up and coming wine it has firmly re-imposed itself as one of the more interesting wine areas in Europe. And I agree. I’ll show you 3 whites, 1 rose and 2 reds.

In these tough times we don’t have to give up eating very well. We can’t eat fillet steak or turbot, but we can do things with other cuts which can still make for fantastic eating. We’ll do you a really good Marseilles fish soup. All the bits as well, croutons, gruyere cheese and rouille. Floyd wrote a great piece about fish soup in Marseilles; I’ll paraphrase: " The tables all had stiff white cloths, the long serving waitresses were Sisters of Mercy and the fish soup, despite all the diesel fumes from the roadside where I sat in the sun, was perfect". I’d love to have written that.

Then a re-work of an old fashioned Chicken Fricassee. This used to be the left over roast chicken thing when you didn’t want curry!! Made with a fairly stodgy bechamel sauce. We won’t do that. Not a bit of flour in sight. But we will use larger older local free range chicken that has grown large enough to gain flavour. We’ll gently poach them and then make a great reduction with the stock, add white wine and cream and reduce, reduce and reduce. We will add some vegetables at the last minute and serve the steaming pile with fluffy mash. To finish; a Bakewell Tart with Pear Compote & Cinnamon Ice cream. 5 wines to match. How’s that?

I have such fond memories of the Barossa tucked away in the Lofty Mountain Ranges, just north east of Adelade. The tough Silesian (East Germany / Prussia ) descendants throughout the first half of last century who settled here, speak with an odd Germanic accent and maintain their old traditions. But they grow fantastic shiraz grapes. There are about 2000 grape farmers who sell their grapes onto the wineries. Whilst it is regarded as the benchmark for shiraz, they do other wines as well and we’ll taste 4 different varieties.

A warm Prawn and Mussel Tart for a start set with some egg and cream, quiche style. You understand I don’t "do quiche". Like Prince Charles, I call it a Tart. Fillet of Cod with Bouillabaisse Sauce, Courgette & Chick Peas, then it has to be our lovely Cheese with a home made chutney, probably plum and some walnut bread. I may also have a little Brulee to keep the sweet toothed on board! The wine is going to fun with this lot. I won’t if you don’t mind serve a sticky with the Brulee.

I just have to take you back there as the wine is just so good. Rather like Italy, in recent years South Africa is storming along. Particularly now with the weak pound and the even weaker rand its terrific value as well. I have a Destination Chardonnay from Martin (Day; you remember him don’t you?) as well as some other belters. Its going to be 2 whites, 3 reds and a sweetie.

Please reserve the following places:

California Wine Supper

Tuesday 14^th July 2009 ..........places @ £38 Total £..........

Lovely Alsace Wines

Monday 27th July 2009 ..........places @ £11 Total £..........

Hints of the |Orient Supper

Tuesday 11^th August 2009 ..........places @ £33 Total £..........

Southern Italy

Monday 24^th August 2009 ..........places @ £9 Total £..........

Gourmet on a Budget

Tuesday 8^th September 2009 ..........places @ £35 Total £..........

The Barossa Valley

Monday 21^st September 2009 ..........places @ £10 Total £..........

Fish French Style

Tuesday 6^th October 2009 ..........places @ £33 Total £..........

South Africa Again

Monday 19^th October 2009 ..........places @ £11 Total £..........

GRAND TOTAL £.................

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