Greggs Moment, Northumberland Street

Greggs seems to be one business that is riding the recession and indeed in hard times where would we be without good old comfort food like sausage rolls, jam doughnuts and so forth?  And now they have gone into the cafe business as well.  I spotted this one maybe a month ago and I am told there is one in the Bridges at Sunderland as well.  Expect them to sweep the country within weeks - seriously!  I can remember when Greggs was unknown outside of the north east and now you can find them in deepest, darkest Basingstoke (but without the stotties).

So did the Greggs cafe experience live up to expectations?  I have to say that it did.  The menu was different from the shop fare but all looked and sounded good.  I chose a chicken and chorizo foccacio which was heated well and quickly, and a coffee choux bun stuffed with cream, and a pot of tea.  That cost me £5.50 - I must have been undercharged - that's outrageous value!  The tea came in a proper pot, with proper milk in a proper jug, and china that my mother would have approved of.  Full marks so far.

The decor seems to be aiming at a retro, granny's house, traditional values kind of vibe.  Downstairs the seating area has small dark wood tables and chairs with some high stools overlooking the street and outdoor tables too.  The walls are half papered with retro wallpaper patterns (think 70s) and old photos of the area hang in gilded frames.  Notice the lampshades featuring black and white Newcastlescapes.  I want one.  There's an upstairs too where the dreaded sofas lurk.  I imagine more retro wallpaper and probably flying ducks and a photo of the Queen Mother over the mantelpiece.  The spacious serving area is all gleaming white tiles and a Welsh dresser.

I know I'll be going back.  I have to try the Brekkles cake (something to do with a yogurt compote), and the individual bar cakes, and the cupcakes, and the vanilla latte, and the breakfast items.  It's definitely Greggs' moment - today the toon, tomorrow the world!

The Village Tearooms, Whitburn

I've been doing a bit of cat-sitting in Whitburn this week, and as it's been so nice and sunny - yes and freezing cold too - I decided to treat myself to tea and a scone at the Village Tearooms.  They'd been recommended to me years ago but as yet, no visit has been made.  I have to say the cakes etc looked delicious and the locals were out in force to buy, which is always a good sign.  The inside tables looked a bit dark, but the tearooms are fortunate to be in a sheltered corner, making it possible to sit outside in comfort (and a warm coat) even in October.  So it was that Polly Parrot and I sat on a bench, under a parasol munching our cream scones and sipping beautifully strong tea.

There was a sudden rustling on the parasol!  Rain?  No, the sky was clear!  Hail?  Frogs?  Nothing less than masonry from a distinctly lopsided chimney.  I'd recently read an article about a poorly maintained chimney crashing down on a parked car, but sensibly kept this to myself as Polly is a worrier, and was still fretting over the fact that the cafe assistant and handled our scones without glove, tongs or wellies.  But thankfully all was well. The chimney stayed up, the scones stayed down and life in Whitburn continues unhindered.

Loose ends

Just a little note to report that my last birthday 50p was spent in Procters bakery on Fenham Hall Drive on a rather delicious white chocolate caramel slice this lunchtime.  I'm grateful to my cousin, but he will never know as he doesn't do the interweb...

This evening I drank tea from a proper china cup at the Watch House in Sunderland.  There were three of us, and we were celebrating and closing the circle dance group that has run there for a number of years.  Thank you Lawrie, and thank you everyone else for the dance.

Newcastle's Famous Happy Chip, Waterloo Street

I'd noticed this place a while back but had it on my list as 'cafe, city quadrant' and its chief attraction at the moment seemed to be tea at 50p a cup.  What would it be like inside?  I decided I should find out this week and make it a Monday lunchtime adventure before my courage failed.  It was only once inside and making my way up the stairs (the whole place seems to be on a mezzanine floor of the City Hotel) that I spotted the noticeboard informing me that this was not just The Happy Chip - no, it was Newcastle's Famous Happy Chip!!

Once upstairs I was obviously in a fish and chip cafe with an extensive menu and special offers for all occasions.   I opted for chips and a large tea which was served by efficient and friendly staff.  Above their heads was a long list of prohibitions (no discount, no credit, no toilets etc etc) leading me to suppose that some of their clientele may be under the influence of more than hunger when they visit.

Another short flight of stairs led me to the seating area.  Old and frankly shabby tables were complimented by newer and very plush dining chairs, the CCTV camera eyed me as I munched my chips and Real Radio filled the air.  Several young people were eating and ordering, so maybe the HC is sacred to the student community.  The chips were fine, the tea was fine, and at £2 I still have 50p to spend from my birthday money.  Another tea perhaps?

The Lunchbox Cafe, Throckley Industrial Estate

If you can't have a lifetime or even a day of adventure and discovery, then just make the most of your lunchtime, I say.  So when 1pm came round off I set to track down The Lunchbox Cafe which I'd seen signposted and which only opens during the week.  I'd set myself the additional challenge of getting the best value from the £5 my cousin sent me for my birthday.(We always send each other a fiver, and as his birthday is just after mine the temptation to just stick the note back in his card was strong - hence the need for a challenge).

The Lunchbox operates out of an industrial unit at the back of the estate.  Once inside it looks nothing like an industrial unit at all, the ceiling has been lowered, floor tiled and no-nonsense white plastic tables and chairs installed.  They open from 7am to 2pm, so I just scraped in but despite this the welcome was friendly and with a sausage sandwich and tea at £2.50  I still have plenty of my fiver to spend next time.  I sat comfortably with Metro radio for company - newspapers and free wi-fi also advertised.

I guess the Lunchboxers know their clientele well, so there was a tasty range of savoury meals and sandwiches on the menu, but cakes limited to cake bars and chocolate bars (you can still get your sugar fix in other words). Would I go back?  No hesitation!  But it might have to be mince and dumplings next time...

Thus fortified, I set out for the uncharted wilds of Chapel House, or was it Chapel Park?  Anyway, there I found Houseproud, a little gloryhole of a DIY cum general dealership that sold me exactly the size of tacks that I wanted and which the giant B&Q at Newburn doesn't stock at all!  Ha!  Long live the local cafe and the local trader!

Oh, and by the way I should have said from the start that the blackboard menu was perfect!  Not a rogue apostrophe anywhere, no deserts where we would expect desserts!  All other establishments take note!!

Locomotion, Shildon, County Durham

So where do you take a retired railway employee for the day?  Somewhere train-related is usually a winner, and when I found a guided walk round a railway museum and through railway history-soaked countryside I thought I was onto a racing certainty.  A few holes in the plan appears when we read the small print about what is acceptable attire on a County Durham guided walk.  We concluded that we wouldn't pass the kit inspection in our jeans and trainers, so maybe it was just as well that we parked in the wrong car park and missed the walk altogether.

I have to say that Locomotion is great (and free to visit!).  There is a big engine shed and then a walk along the track side to more historic buildings and the story of the Stockton and Darlington line and the huge railway sidings at Shildon. There is something definitely heroic, romantic even, about the trains, from the early Sans Pareil to modern high speed trains and seeing them in close up makes you more aware of their sheer power.  We shunted (technical term) into the Platform 7 cafe to take on coffee and cake on arrival.  Where else could you enjoy food and a view of a snow plough from Percy Main?  It was basic cafe tables and chairs in a corner of the engine shed with a helpful volunteer to point out where we should ring for service.  We later saw a meals on wheels van parked round the back, so maybe they do community meals as well, maybe not...  There are also tables on the other side of the shed where you can eat your own picnic and watch the trains go by (we did that later).  So, hurrah for Locomotion, a good place to visit!

From there we headed towards Bishop Auckland before branching off on a whim (mine) to visit the gorgeously atmospheric church at Escomb and walk to the river. The church is part of the small pilgrim places network which also includes St Pancras in Exeter (another favourite place).  And so to Bishop Auckland for a trawl of the charity shops and afternoon tea.  And who better than a retired railway employee to point out that in Morrisons you can get two mugs of tea from a teapot for one?  As the economic crisis deepens this knowledge may be crucial.

Porters Coffee shop, Tynemouth Station

It's always an adventure going to Tynemouth, especially when the trip involves ferries, the fish quay, riverside walk and then the book fair.  This being Birthday 3, I was accompanied by my brother who, I have to say did very well with books and also kindly bought me a little piece of pottery that took my fancy.  I too bought a book, and at 50p I don't think I was robbed.  Then it was time for tea.  Normally we'd have headed for The Land of Green Ginger, but we'd spotted Porters on the way in and thought we would give it a go.

There were tables outside on the station concourse, but we opted for an indoor table in what had been the waiting room we imagined.  How many journeys had begun and ended here?  So atmospheric, railway stations, what other dramas had been seen here (think Exeter St Davids and Sir Redvers Buller's mother - try googling that one!).  Today the wooden floored space is filled with dark wood tables and chairs, the old fireplace still there but probably not used.  On high shelves sit remnants of bygone days - I spotted a poss stick, manual typewriter, and bakelite telephone - and on the ceiling are mounted beautiful lights shaped like flowers and (more bizarrely) disco lights.  Does Porters show another side of its character after dark??
Now, to the food.  My coffee cake was as good as my own, and the chocolate crispy cake was reported good as well.  Tea was served in neat white pots, with neat white cups.  We were asked if we wanted milk, but instead of a neat white milk jug, we got a slurp of milk in each cup!  Never seen it done that way before.

We visited late on in the afternoon and the staff were obviously keen to keep up with the table clearing and the washing up.  I overheard one customer telling them it was rude to clear while people were still sitting.  Well, yeah, but given that they were very busy and no one wants to work longer than need be on a Sunday, and it's tea and cakes not a table at the Ivy, I think we can let them off.  I think I was more concerned that there appeared to be only one table for two - so visit in a pack or be prepared to share.

Cafe Royal, Nelson Street

This is Birthday take 2.  Having done the savoury, I felt sweet was called for and also a touch of class so off I trolled to the classiest sounding of them all - Cafe Royal.  The entrance is impressive to say the least - massive carved pillars - what was it before it was a cafe I wondered.  Inside, my eyes took in a frankly quite ordinary-looking scene - tiled floor, beech coloured chairs and tables, newspapers.  The food looked interesting rather than extensive but once I had spotted the caramel slice there was no going back.  Then cames the dilemma.  Do we order here or is it waitress service?  No clue, and the staff at the counter weren't giving anything away.  Slinking off into a corner, I perched on a high stool and surveyed the scene.  Spiral stairs led upstairs to a mezzanine floor and possibly sofas.  There was a downstairs too (dungeons?) and waitresses flitted to and fro.  Eventually another customer came in and ordered at the counter, so that's how it's done!

Ten minutes later, I was seated at a proper table on the ground floor eating my caramel slice which fully lived up to expectations, drinking tea and reading the Journal while relaxing classical music played discreetly in the background.

OK, I was impressed, but - how can I put this - oh you know what I mean.  Maybe at heart I know where I belong.

Jayz II , Grainger Market

It's the run up or countdown (depending whether the glass is half full or half empty) to my birthday this week.  I've already had one card, two invites for food and a visit from my lovely brother planned.  Really, it's a serial birthday party.  Most people get all their friends in one place and celebrate, I keep mine neatly compartmentalised and end up doing about six different things.  So, today was Birthday Party 1, but where to go?  We did think of  chinese, but couldn't find just the right place, we thought cake, then we thought savoury and by that time were so hungry that cannibalism seemed a distinct possibility.

 Fortunately we were saved by a a chance encounter with Jayz II, where for about the same as you would pay for insubstantial cakes for two in a more (pretentious- is that a word?) establishment, you can get fish and chips with mushy peas and a pot of tea and sausage, beans and chips.  I had the sausages and mighty fine they were too, ditto beans and chips. 

It was a real nostalgia fest.  The kind of meal I would have eaten in the Fuchsia Cafe with my mother in the recent past.  The kind of cafe that just reminded me of my childhood and the original Chicken Cafe in the butter market (long since demolished)  in Newton Abbot where we'd have a cup of tea on market day.

And you know what?  It wasn't even on my hitlist!  I still have more cafes than weeks left in this year!  Birthday Party II here we come...

Coffeeholic, Chillingham Road, Heaton

Well, here we are in October, warmer than the Med, and me without a cafe to go to!  This is the closest I've come to missing a week (can't count Morrisons because I have been there before only without a tablecloth).  I tried one of my hitlist at lunchtime only to find they don't do Saturdays and so by the afternoon I was a bit stuck for ideas.  Enter another friend with a bright idea!  In true journalistic fashion I never name my sources, so let's just call her 'Rebecca', and she it was who told me that Coffeeholic is open late every day and as I happened to be over that way in any case...pure serendipity!

I was able to park easily and freely outside, which was a bonus, and once inside Coffeeholic has a warm and friendly atmosphere.  You know how old fashioned I am in the matter of seating, so the sofas and bucket chairs didn't suit me particularly although there were also dining chairs that were comfortable and bar stools in the window.  Wooden floors seem to be the industry standard at the moment and the walls were brightened with lots of pictures in small and unusual frames.  Another nice jokey touch was the wall of clocks showing Heaton time, Toon time,  Jesmond time, Wallsend time etc.  Newspapers and board games were available too.

I ordered a cupcake and latte which were brought to my table and were both a generous size. So I sat and enjoyed and browsed the menu and soaked what felt like a very continental atmosphere - warmth, relaxing music, a couple chatting in German, plenty of people out strolling.  Yep, it was another good one - thank you 'Rebecca' and may the force be with you!