The Proud Couple

Starting your own food and drink emporium leads to tremendous self-sacrifice – this is something I am just finding out.

For instance, purely for research purposes I find myself in Rosie & Oscar’s pizza place (I’m there right now!) whilst having two hours to kill in town. I’m not proud of myself and to be honest two months ago I would never have imagined I would be dining alone and acting like a food critic for an important publication in the hope that Olly, Rosie or Oscar might offer some special inducement in return for a good review.

That’s not going to happen, I realise that now, but I have been absorbing my surroundings like a parched jelly fish. Everything is a lesson and I have learned several things quite apart from how very tasty the grub here is – prepared by the prune-skinned hands of the inventor of pizza and amateur Tom Daley impersonator, Dominic Reddish (available for parties).

I learned this from O&R’s website and it is really clear that their fun (possibly bum fun) permeates the restaurant. Lesson number one – make up a good back story. It works for The X-Factor and the messiah alike. Gotta have one.

But – before I go into the remaining lessons I really must say how wonderful it was to see the social media whirlwind successes: Kate and Wills in such fine fettle. I’m sure you’ll join me in wishing them all the best for the future.

Bumping into my ex-colleagues Kate Clift (on the left) and Will Whittow (the other one) in a completely different eating establishment the other day was a surprise and a delight and they were having a whale of a time – it  makes me realise how many cafes I actually go into. I could/should be an expert – #metoo.

Kate’s better half (no offence Will) is actually a motorcyclist of sorts so I very much look forward to welcoming his leather-clad bits’n’pieces into my adobe.

Anyway – I’m sure you’re keen to hear what else I learned from Oscar and/or Rosie and I’m rushing straight into the next thing: a quote from Mario Andretti;

“If everything is under control then you’re not going fast enough“

It’s made me think that my own bistro go-kart is currently going too slow! I have a plan to grease it up and get it sliding in the right direction… more about that next time.

Next nuggets of insight (two actually) popped up right in front of me… can you spot them?

Yes, Bill Bailey. There’s nothing like comedian with a comb-over to pull in the punters. I love them and I will definitely try to get hold of one – a Bill Bailey, not a comb-over.

The most eagle-eyed amongst you will have spotted the next good idea too. Using rubbish to plaster the walls can sometimes be a little bit nasty, however, if the rubbish in question is a high-brow publication – something the illiterati might leave on their coffee table from MADE – then you have a funky decor with intellectual credibility to boot!  Here you will notice that the walls are plastered with Private magazine – brilliant, #metoo.

Anyway – despite all this stimulation – the one thing that really stands out is the food – that pizza was absolutely delicious, well done Tom.