Tag Archives: Brussels

Star & Garter Hotel

15 February 2019 billpaterson1@me.com 1 Comment

Scotland’s national poet, Robert Burns, was born 1759 in the Ayrshire town of Alloway. The same year also saw the birth of this place, in the West Lothian town of Linlithgow. At that time it was the home of the wealthy Boyd family of ship owners. By the 1847, however, it had been transformed into a coaching inn, the Star & Garter, under the ownership of James Burleigh. At that time it was the Avis or Hertz of its day, hiring out horses and carriages. It’s right beside the station which is handy for us. While our car is being serviced in Bo’ness we can jump on a train and the garage picks us up from here. On some previous occasions, you may remember, they have picked us up at the Black Bitch.

Having a little time to spare, however, our attention was drawn towards the possibility of a scone. When we asked we were informed by a nice young man that tea and coffee were no problem. However, if we wanted a scone we would have to wait until he baked one. You will agree, it would have been rude and churlish to turn him down on such an offer.

What’s in a name?

There are loads of pubs in Britain bearing the Star & Garter name. How come? As far as we can ascertain the Garter bit comes from the Order of the Garter. In 1344, Edward III decided to admit some of his knights to the Order of the Garter to make them feel a bit special among all these other common-or-garden knights. A bribe, in other words, for extra loyalty. The medals accompanying these awards usually came in the form of stars. Presumably the phrase “star and garter” began to be used to denote something a bit special. Would our scone be worthy of such an accolade?

Promising start

We were sitting by an open log fire waiting for them to be baked so no great hardship there. Although we had our tea and coffee, waiting like this does heighten the sense of anticipation. Suffice to say, by the time they arrived we were ready! Having just come from the oven they were wonderfully warm, and although there was no cream there was plenty of jam and butter. First bite was very promising however as we progressed we decided that they had just been slightly over baked. We like them slightly crunchy on the outside but these were more ‘hard’. Had it not been for that they could have merited a topscone but sadly it was not to be.

Honoured

However, sitting here by the fire in February with a slightly hard scone is still very enjoyable. We always feel honoured when folk offer to bake scones specially for us. Not as honoured as a knight of the realm you understand and certainly not as much as a gartered one, but honoured nevertheless.

Bribes

It is incredible that the government was defeated yet again last night and it doesn’t seem to make the slightest bit of difference. Why do they bother with all that palaver? Theresa May, never mind she cannot even command her own government, sets off to Brussels in another futile attempt to browbeat the EU into some sort of submission. It really takes some believing. Perhaps she is going with a bundle of stars and garters in her handbag. She has bribed everyone else so it may be worth a try.

A Parcel of Rogues

When Robert Burns wrote ‘Such A Parcel Of Rogues In A Nation’ he could easily have been referring to Brexit and the secretive ERG group of MPs. He wrote: “Is wrought now by a coward few, For hireling traitor’s wages”.Though he could just as easily aimed it at MPs in the Labour party who will go with anything just to keep their jobs.

EH49 7AB tel: 01506 845647 Star & Garter

ps. Honours should really go to our N.Ireland correspondents who, on a wee trip to Venice, diligently set about searching for a scone. Not easy in such an uncultured place however they did manage to find scone approximations. Apparently these items are only made at Carnavale time. This year that runs from 16th Feb to 5th March so we are doubly honoured to be seeing such rare Italian sconey things. They didn’t say how they tasted however .. more training required!

As always, many thanks to all our correspondents.

Ordinary, Scones, self-service

The Café by Benugo

22 October 2017 billpaterson1@me.com

When we were on Orkney we got a real sense of community. People supported each other by making local crafts and selling local produce. Staff had time for a chat and all that. There was just a certain honest homeliness about the island and the people so we were not surprised to learn that it was voted best place to live in the UK, five years in a row. In spite of the wind! Today’s venue is about as far away as you can get from that. This could easily be where the Great God of Consumerism actually lives!

View from John Lewis' Café by Benugoby Benugo — View from Café by Benugo

It is, of course, Buchanan Galleries in Glasgow. Even the name of the cafe at the John Lewis store, ‘The Cafe by Benugo’, sounds a bit pretentious. Turns out that ‘Benugo’ is a company founded by Ben and Hugo Warner (see what they did there) in London in 1998.

Portrait of founder of John Lewis — John Spedan Lewis

They now service all the John Lewis stores as well as many others and have over 2,000 employees … well done Ben and Hugo. The John Lewis stores themselves are perhaps not too far removed from the community spirit we found on Orkney. They are run by the John Lewis Partnership, set up by John Spedan Lewis in 1920.

Illogical systems

After the store had been operating for over fifty years he had the revolutionary idea (for the time) that staff would be better motivated if they had a say in running the company. And a share in the profits … something which continues to this day, all staff are ‘partners’ in the company. The JLPartnership also runs the Waitrose supermarket empire and is now a multi £billion business … a far cry from its first day’s takings of 16s 4d (82p) in 1864. What about the scones by Benugo? It is self-service and the seating area is spread around a vast glass balcony overlooking one of the busy concourses.

We opted for a ‘cream tea for two’ which at £8 seemed like good value. It was slightly odd, however, in that, usually with these things, you can have whatever you like to drink. Not here! Pat wanted peppermint tea, no problem, but I felt like a coffee. No, it had to be tea or nothing. No big deal but it just seemed like a slightly illogical bit of inflexibility. The scones themselves were good though a little on the sweet side for our taste … no topscone unfortunately.

Partnership working in Spain

Illogical inflexibility seems to be the order of the day. The Spanish government has just removed Catalonia’s autonomy. Surely a massive blow to democracy. Unbelievably, it’s happening within the EU. Goodness knows where they will go from here but you can’t help feeling that it will all end in tears. Scotland should beware … devolution is currently under threat with the repatriation of powers from Brussels. Many of which may never reach Edinburgh if Westminster gets its way. Hopefully Spain will take a lead from John Spedan Lewis and get into some sort of partnership with the Catalans. It worked for him.

G1 2GF tel: 0141 353 6677 The Café by Benugo

Scones, Top

Georgian Tea Room

22 March 2016 billpaterson1@me.com

No, nothing to do with Mad Max! This is in Edinburgh’s George Street and there is definitely nothing thunderous about it. ‘A warm balmy evening’ might describe it better.

Built in 1847 as the headquarters of the Commercial Bank of Scotland it currently functions as a bar, restaurant and night club. We often come here when we are in town, fancy a pint … and the Café Royal is just a bit too far away. On this occasion however instead of going into the bar area under the magnificent dome we went upstairs to the Georgian Tea Room. A bit of an adventure, since we had never strayed upstairs before. Needless to say the splendour continues. The tea room certainly does not let the rest of the building down in any way .. all chandeliers and ebony.

Afternoon tea

As soon as you walk in you get the feeling that you are not going to be let down either. It was a special day so we were tr

Internal view of the Georgian Tearoom — Georgian Tearoom

eating ourselves to afternoon tea and it seemed that lots of other people were doing the same. A constant turnover of tables but all done in an atmosphere of absolute calm. Of course, champagne had to be taken first. Recently, a correspondent from France could not understand how Hugh’s champagne bar existed when it was not open in the evening. I had to explain that, in Scotland, we drink champagne all day because, just living here, is a constant cause for celebration!

Anyway the bubbles allowed us time to look at the tea menu which contained six different options. Pat wanted her usual breakfast tea and I decided on the Bannockburn .. no idea why? In our last post we were seeking out Scottish tea plantations, however, in spite of the name, the Bannockburn tea estate, which has existed since the 1850s, is situated just a few miles from the centre of Darjeeling. No prizes for guessing where the founders were from. Served in Dudson fine bone china, the blurb said it was fresh yet fruity with citrus and apricot notes; the perfect accompaniment to scones .. and it was! What with the crisp white linen tablecloths and napkins, the silver tea service and the scones being just the right size and melt-in-the-mouth, it was not in the least bit difficult to make a topscone award … hurrah!

Flying pigs

Sitting here in the Dome, cosseted and looked after superbly well, you tend to wonder what the government was thinking about with it’s recent attempt at cutting allowances for the sick and disabled. Little wonder they have decided to do a U-turn. As we write, news is coming in of bombings in Brussels. What is happening in this deeply divided world? Maybe Trump can sort it out .. or was that a pig flying over? You’ll be pleased to know that we did manage to squeeze in a wee visit to the Café Royal on the way home.

EH2 2PF tel: 0131 624 8624 The Dome

Scones, history and a dollop of politics