Tag Archives: Temperance Cafe

Scones

Forth & Co

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Well here we are in 2023. We hope that all our readers had a great time over the festive season. Here’s to you all having a happy, and above all, healthy year. The first scone of 2023 comes to you courtesy of Forth & Co in our home town of Falkirk. Perhaps, at this point we should just mention that it’s quite a sinful one! 

We came into town early and decided to have breakfast out. Forth & Co has recently opened having replaced Johnstone’s Bar & Bistro which we reviewed back in 2016. We thought we should give this new place a whirl. In my teenage years this was the Temperance Cafe, a place to hang out with all the other cool cats. The coolest cats (such as myself) met upstairs on the balcony where we could look down on ordinary folk and talk about girls, politics and the price of milk. Okay, mostly girls … certainly don’t remember any in-depth discussions on scones! Six decades later there are some pretty obvious changes but in essence it’s amazingly the same.Internal view of Forth & Co

Sinful

What we are trying to explain is that we came here for breakfast and did not expect scones to be present so early in the day. But there they were and after coffee and a lovely breakfast roll we found ourselves tucking into a scone … can’t help ourselves! And it was still early morning! Not absolutely sure what the correct time for scone scoffing is but we do know it’s not this early. Hopefully, we’ve not upset any of our more delicate and genteel readers!

A scone at Forth & CoHalf expecting to be struck down by a thunderbolt we cut our scone in half and proceeded to spread the Irish butter and the French jam … argh! There was also a generous bowl of whipped cream. It was all rather nice though fairly obviously not freshly baked on the premises. Service was very efficient and friendly but there’s some work to be done if they want a topscone award.

Forth & Co is part of the Bow Hospitality chain of about ten similar restaurants around Scotland. It was quiet when we arrived but thankfully it was busy by the time we were leaving at 11am. We’re sure it will be just as successful as its predecessor.Internal view of Forth & Co

The Falkirk Televisor

No need to remind avid readers but this building was the scene for the world’s first ever TV broadcast. It was conducted by local boy John Logie Baird as he broadcast an image of a dummy named Snooky Bill (no comments please) from one room to another using his ‘televisor’ invention. It did work, though the pictures were extremely fuzzy! The equipment is now in the local museum.

Extremely fuzzy could well describe the political picture for 2023. Both here in the UK and in the US, politicians seem to be held to ransom by far right extremists. Fortunately we have Harry and Meghan to take our minds off all of that.

Harry’s book ‘Spare’ has occupied the news for the past week. Our own family seem like paragons of virtue compared to the Royals so it is perfectly understandable that Harry wants to put some distance between them. Considering what we the public subject the Royals to, it is hardly surprising that they are dysfunctional. Amidst all the people struggling with utility bills and food banks the tone deaf Charles is busy with the Queen Somesort organising his coronation. A brand new eatery like Forth & Co is definitely more worthy of celebration.Logo of Forth & Co

FK1 1DG       tel: 01324 646758       Forth & Co

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Ordinary, Scones

Johnston’s Bar Bistro

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The menu at Johnston's Bar BistroWhen I was a mere sapling. Long before I met Pat and long before I realised that not all the scones in the world were baked by my mother, this place was a favourite hangout for us cool dudes. At that time, however, it was called the Temperance Cafe.

In about 1920, as was prevalent at the time, the proceeds of a will had been used to buy the Crown Hotel in the Lint Riggs. The intention was to turn it into a temperance public house as an alternative to the plethora of licensed premises all through the town. A couple of years later it famously became the scene for the first ever television broadcast by John Logie Baird.

Politics and girls

Baird was born in Helensburgh but his family were local  farmers at Sunnybrae in Camelon. Little did he know that that single brief event would change the world forever. The equipment Baird used to broadcast a live image of a colleague from one part of the building to another, became known as ‘the Falkirk televisor‘. As an impressionable youth, however, my personal abiding memory of the Temperance was when four of us were sitting round an upstairs table, talking about girls, politics and the price of milk. Maybe not the last two. Internal view of Johnston's Bar Bistro

Memories

We watched a man walk to the top of the stairs. He stopped, then to our astonishment, fell, like a felled tree, face first down the steps. Shocked, we jumped over the banister (these were the days) and caught him just as he reached the bottom. The management ask us to carry him to the kitchen until help arrived. However we could not get him through the door because his arm was sticking out rigidly to the side. It turned out that he had had an epileptic fit, something none of us had heard of at the time, so it made quite an impression. Especially the intense deliberations over what to do about the arm that refused to bend. We had to turn him on his side so that it pointed straight up. No mean feat for four puny wastrels.

Anyway, the whole temperance thing never really took off. After several other incarnations, it has been Johnston’s Bar & Bistro since 2012. One of the town’s favourite meeting places. A scone at Johnston's Bar BistroWe decided to share a fruit scone because they were quite large. When it arrived it was accompanied by the biggest pot of cream we have ever come across. Probably enough to do twenty scones. Needless to say, almost all of it was left, but the scone itself was very good. Their strap line is ‘Food, Drink & Service as it should be‘. A strap line delivered, because we thoroughly enjoyed our visit.

Taking things for granted

When you think about it it’s really quite amazing. We sit watching pictures beamed directly into our living rooms. Strictly Come Dancing. Johanna Lumley crossing Siberia. Cameron trying to look as if he is negotiating something massive with the EU. Osborne pretending to have some sort of control. Children being starved to death in Madaya. We take the means by which these pictures reach us completely for granted but it all started here. Sending pictures between two rooms in this building.

FK1 1DG         tel: 01324 637299          Johnston’s Bar Bistro