It's Autumn - the fire's lit!

Not lit large yet, but certainly alight and taking off the chill thats just started to be in the air!!  It's no good I absolutely love the Victoria Inn at this time of the year - I know I should like it best when it's the height of summer and we're really busy, but now when it's all the regular people coming in (Holiday homes / regular visitors/people from the top of town) it's just like welcoming back old friends and I absolutely love it!!

In fact can I just share how happy I am with life on the whole at the moment - business continues to be blooming excellent and our new Autumn/Winter menu is going down a storm as well as our new approach to the Specials menu.  Now, EVERYTHING on our specials menu is just £10.95 - lots of fresh fish, and that all depends on what our suppliers have on THEIR catch menu. Some great winter warmers like Chilli and Curry, as well as home made pies etc.  We no longer have the IPA on our drinks list but we now have St Austell Dartmoor - a fantastic alternative and still only £2.40 a pint! A couple of the local men have been in to see me and they want their annual Christmas bash at the Vic this year so thats great news as well! We'll shut the pub just for them for a lunchtime and give them a pre-Christmas party to set them up a treat!

A couple of days in Portsmouth last weekend and I do love going to see my family in Portsmouth but I hated driving in such a busy town, and yesterday I was driving through our luscious countryside with my little dogs and with cows and sheep looking at me and passing tractors and people who smile at you and I just thought....... My God but I'm lucky to live in such a beautiful place!!!! My first chest infection of the season is slowly (very slowly) passing and it just feels that all is well with the world!  

I've been inspired by the 'Great British Bake Off' programme with Mary Berry (she's been in the Vic!) & Paul Hollywood and the last couple of days have seen me making Bread, Cakes and Flapjacks as well as main meals.......... My chef James is being used as my own personal tutor and I'm determined to prove my worth in my own kitchen!! The staff seem to like my offerings as well............ But you're ok general public - shan't unleash myself on the real world of paying customers!!! 

Last part of France and Duncan Bannatyne

Blimey this has turned into a mammoth blogging post.......... sorry dear readers the Victoria is still really busy and I have been hit with my first bad chest infection of the season, so not getting on to do my tasks as fast I would have wanted.

So where the heck was I???  Ok yes, in France. We did a huge tour of the De Castelnau winery and saw thousands and thousands of bottles Champagne being filled, stacked, stored. saw the library where bottles go back to the 1940's - absolutely fascinating. The process from start to finish is highly complex and I understand now why Champagne is the price it is - but I honestly think I love it more than ever! We had the most amazing Michelin Star 'packed lunch' that you could ever imagine and with yet more Champagne............. everyone at the winery was so welcoming and friendly and Pascal the MD shook hands with every member of staff he met! A great lesson in staff management! What was even more amazing was that a member of staff knew about our 'Man Creche' sign at the Victoria as his family were in Salcombe in the summer.. how cool was that! So ended our Champagne tour and our biggest thanks to everyone who made it so special for us.

I will gloss over our second night in Reading and move on to the next part of our road trip - 2 nights at Charlton House Hotel - part of Duncan Bannatynes group (him from Dragons Den who doesn't tolerate fools with no business plans!!).  There's no doubt that because of who he is (and I do Twitter with him) that this influenced our decision to go to Charlton House in Somerset, and I am soooooo glad we did because what a great experience it was.

Right from the centralised booking system where I was guided through a maze of deals to the right one for us right up to the warm welcome we received at reception - we knew we had booked well! We were upgraded to a super four poster room with a claw bath situated right in front of huge windows, fabulous shower room and a private balcony area. Food and service was first class and we both enjoyed the pampering at the Spa that we received..... although I wasn't so keen on the flotation thingy - but I'm assured I wasn't the first to say STOP!! Get me up!!!  Girls in the spa were lovely - no snideness that you sometimes get and they seemed to genuinely want to do a great job.

Food and service was excellent but a couple of diners left a lot to be desired on the first night as they discussed birthing plans loudly during dinner despite a few coughs/splutters from me coupled with a filthy look - no hint was taken. Time and place people, time and place or at least keep your voices down!!!  Barman made a great Hendricks G & T - almost as good as me I may say!!

Beautiful grounds and noise from the road was minimal - thoroughly enjoyed sitting in the massive four poster bed with a large glass of wine imagining this was how I always spent my leisure time!!

I'd just like to say a word or three about Mr Bannatyne (I respectfully call him Mr B) - several people have said how he comes across as a bit of a git on Dragons Den, and maybe he does (and is!?) but he actually has a huge heart of gold and does an awful lot of charity work that like a lot of famous / wealthy people goes unsung. He works a lot with Harry Mosely and his family.  Harry has a brain tumour and is the sweetest little boy going - please do what you can to support this cause: http://www.helpharryhelpothers.com/  Mtr B also works with our injured armed forces personnel from conflicts abroad - a thoroughly nice bloke!!!

Moving on, the 2 days at Charlton House flew by and our last port of call was North Walk House in Lynton, North Devon. A delightful B and B run by Ian & Sarah majoring on Organic produce. Lovely rooms overlooking the Bristol Channel with home made flap jacks to accompany your tea and coffee! Dinner was round a large table and you shared it with complete strangers - yikes!! That's a bit of a challenge to English reserve, but it was actually very entertaining and interesting. The food itself - well, absolutely fabulous and as for Ian's porridge in the morning? Yum scrum!! Give it a try if you're ever in North Devon: http://www.northwalkhouse.co.uk/index.htm

So there we go - and t last we're back to normal here at the Victoria - visitors are still here in big numbers thanks to the glorious weather we've had and we start to think of winter..... yuk, what a depressing thought!  But I have lots of exciting things in the pipeline which will be shared with you in due course!!!!

LIZ & Tim's great trip! Part 2

So where was I??? Oh yes,  we arrived in Calais and started our journey onto Riemes and Eperney travelling on near empty toll roads at a reasonably swift pace - UK - There is such a lesson to be learnt from other European roadways!! Anyway, I digress........ we stopped for lunch in Eperney before starting our tour of the vineyards at a charming and very typical french corner restaurant and I just could NOT resist taking a camera picture of the menu above - have a close look! It certainly made us laugh......... and there was also a Sephora cosmetic shop (my absolute favourite grown up version of a sweetie shop!!) across the road from the restaurant so a fabulous start for me - food and make up!!!

After our lunch break we headed for the vineyards passing most of the big name Champagne houses and what seemed like dozens and dozens of smaller ones and some in what seemed just like private houses...... an amazing thing to see I must say! Out in the countryside in some areas all you could see for miles in each direction were rows upon rows of vines.......... absolutely amazing! We were taken to see Dom Perignon's burial site with in a church and there some really beautiful old pews with what now would be classed as graffitti but all sorts of dates scrawled on them. As we drove through the various areas Charles Ancliffe our host explained to us about the chalkiness of the soil and the effect this has on the grapes and their taste, he told us about the different types of grapes and that 1and a half kilo's go into just 1 bottle of Champagne........... we learnt all about first and second pressings and oh yes, had another bottle of Champagne on a hill top overlooking the most spectacular view and listening to the wind rustling through the tree's.......... very, very romantic (well for me anyway - not sure about my 3 male companions!).

Our third and last stop before hitting the hotel and trying to get just 40 winks before a night on the town beckoned was on a hill top where the Mumm windmill is and time for our last Champagne of the day (not the whole day you understand - just the daylight hours part!!) this time a Vintage de Castelneau... ohh I didn't half like that one!!!!! By the way, that's a bunch of grapes you might just see that Charles is holding behind my head.......

We were booked in to the Hotel de la Paix and my goodness, what a fantastic hotel!! www.hotel-lapaix.fr  A hotel used by many of the big Champagne houses to put guests in and recently renovated, we were pleasantly surprised and delighted by our room. Now this one could be called a real Boutique room and guess what?? A bottle of Champagne from Monsieur Pascal Prudhomme the Directeur Generale of De Castelnau was waiting for us in our room..............

Part 3 and I'll tell you about the fab meal we had that night (what I can remember of it!) and our tour of the winery............

  

LIZ & Tim's great trip! Part one

This great trip of ours is going to have to be done in tiny pieces as it was sooooo fantastic and I don't want to spare you any of the fantabulous details!!!

So lets start with day one. Tuesday 6th September saw us get off eventually after having done all the 'pubby' things and leaving all in good order, getting a couple of miles up the road in my neatly packed Betsy (Smart Car) and then having to turn back as I'd forgotten to pack the Sat Nav............. well it was only a couple of miles - no big deal (!). SOH wasn't over amused but I only had to remind him of the numerous occasions we have had to turn round because HE'S forgotten something and all was well in the Hore household very quickly!!

First thing was to drive to the Wee Waif in Reading where our brewery St Austell had paid for us to have the first night of our prize winning 'Wine House of the Year' last year and then the actual Champagne tour was hosted by Champagne de Castelnau. 

Now then what can I say about the Wee Waif in Reading - clean, reasonably comfortable and frankly, you get what you pay for! The room on this our first night was far better than the one we given on our return, but for what we wanted for the few hours we were there it was perfectly acceptable. It was also close for our host Charles Ancliffe from Patriarch Wines, and quite a central location to get us to Folkestone the next morning for the 'chunnel'. With us was James Finneman who is a wine development manager for St Austell, so I was quite pleased to  find myself the only lady amongst three such charming gentleman. 

Our first meal was at the St George & Dragon in Reading, www.stgeorgeanddragon.co.uk a dinner for four in a very relaxed setting with exceptionally good food and a prime example of not believing all you read on Trip Advisor!! However, we were relatively modest with the alcohol as I think we sensed it was going to be a heavy few days..............

The next day at 6.30A.M we were packing our thing into Charles's car who was going to be our chauffeur for the next 24 hours and off we set for Folkestone. A beautiful sunny (ish) day and a congenial host who told us how many times he had done this before and how much he loved showing Champagne country to people like us. So accomplished at this was he that when we got to the port and he asked me to put his credit card in to gain access on the booking he was staggered to find he hadn't actually booked the train.........!!!!  Doh. and there's me thinking I'm the only one who could do something like that!!  

However eventually and safely ensconced on Le Shuttle at 9.a.m and heading into the bowels of the earth Charles announced it was our first Champagne of the day - a charming De Castleneau Rose Champagne. Bearing in mind we had only had 2 coffees, half a kit kat each and a small croissant  - 2 glasses had the desired effect of going straight to my knees!!! A remarkable short trip saw us on French soil within about 35 minutes - my how time flies when you're having fun!!

Part two to follow in the next couple of days....................

In the meantime I'm glad to say that whilst the summer 'silly' season has ended, the Victoria is as busy as ever - so if you are coming to visit and you want to eat with us I would recommend that you really do book :)

Wine Pub of the Year 2010

Do you remember that we won an award from St Austell for being the Wine Pub of the Year 2010?? Well, we are off on our prize trip this week to Reims sponsored by Champagne de Castelneau combined with a couple of days in Duncan Bannatynes Charlton Spa Hotel when home and a cliff top B & B in North Devon - so next blog I write I'll have a load of things to tell you..........I'm very very glad we're having a week off, we are both exhausted and so far this year whilst we've had a few breaks apart we've only been away together for about 5 days..... So I'm very much looking forward to some time together and away from the pressures of business. Now that a lot of the holidaymakers have gone home we haven't really taken our foot of the gas as yet - yesterday I was at the Kingsbridge show advertising our newly re-furbished upstairs restaurant and it's suitability for functions/weddings etc.

How big??

Ooohhhhh

Happy as pigs in ????

Ok - I'm ready!!

Really good fun and Glo, my bar manager and I made some good contacts I think! Certainly made us think about doing a wedding fair proper.....???  For a previous Big City girl (and I think still one to some extent) I have a real liking for the County Fairs. I've always been quite opinionated about fox hunting and hunting in general but when you start to talk to country people about the ban and the effect its had on local communities etc and I saw a hunt in action yesterday I'm tending to not be so small minded about it............ When I was a very small girl and my Daddy died, my Mum used to send me to Selsey in Sussex to be looked after in the summer holidays by my lovely Auntie Doris & Uncle Edgar. I can remember thinking it was all such a great adventure and you were so safe to walk through the village and to the sea in 'those days'........ and there was always a village fair, and I'm sure it's that memory that triggered so many of the feelings I had yesterday as I browsed round the stalls and 'best  of's' - cakes/flowers/marrows and onions etc etc.   I felt quite weepy at one stage - I think it was the realisation of passing time and old memories.

So there you are - another summer season over and done with - our 3rd! I must say I think it's been very hard work this year for lots of reasons, but as I sit here tonight with a distinct autumnal nip in the air around me I'm grateful that we've done as well as we have and that our customers still rate us and like us. All we must do now is keep in touch with our market conditions, keep on giving our customers what they want: Value, great service and a pub they want to spend time in!!

Not long now.............

Till it's all over that is! What?? Oh sorry, the 'Season'!!  What a weird one its been as well........ You can see that many of the visitors are watching their pennies - here at the Victoria we can gauge it by a few things:

NO amount of the bottles of Champagne being sold as there was in our first year
Nowhere near the amount of 'doubles' being asked for
Nowhere near the amounts of Cokes/J20's etc being sold for the children - but lots and lots of jugs of tap water................. 
Our St Austell ales are going well though as are the more reasonable wines etc, but very few customers are having 3 courses - lots of 2 courses or sharing desserts. I'm really glad that I won the battle with Chef to keep our food prices at a reasonable level - although having said that the Lobster and dressed Crab, both a good price have been selling really well! The next challenge will be to get the Autumn/Winter menu's right, both in content and price - so if you have Victoria Inn favourites you'd like to see on the menu PLEASE tell me!   

The Hobbitt House has been fully booked all of August and looks set to do the same for September, and yet no takers for our November special deal of £50 a nt for a minimum 2 night break. Having said all of that we are almost booked out for NEXT July already.............

On another note Archie and Rosie become firm favourites of our Hobbit guests and just recently 2 delightful ladies who stayed with us for a week took them out for very long walks on a couple of occasions - look at the pictures of 2 very happy dogs and enjoy the enjoyment on their faces after a fantastic afternoon on the beach............. !  

To speak or not to speak?

Well, I think I really have to after having witnessed some of the most awful things happening in my country over the last week or so.............

So many words have been spoken, so many pictures taken. So many depressing images of buildings burning, young and old being injured and murdered. I think I will never forget seeing the images of a young man, obviously injured and traumatised being mugged for what little he possessed in his back pack. So many young people (and now being seen through arrests the not so young!) displaying such violence and disregard for the property and lives of others.

Of course the Police were criticised - too slow to react, too few, not tough enough........... yet how many remember the awful death of PC Keith Blakelock on the 6th October 1985, when he was practically de-capitated and knifed to death as he entered a part of the riot with little or no back-up. A not too dissimilar story of violent riots on the Broadwater Farm estate in Tottenham following the death of a black woman who had a heart attack after Police raided her home. 

However, they were riots of a quintisenntially racial nature - these riots that started in London and spread out to other major cities like a virulent cancer growth were not. But then, what were they??  Were they dissaffected youth protesting at injustice? Were they poor people with no other means of showing anger at there impoverished lives? Were they true anarchists intent of destroying the very fabric of our lives?

Following the arrests and subsequent trials it would appear that very little of the above can be applied to these people as we see 'normal' people being charged and tried. Nursery nurses, teaching assistant and even a millionaires daughter amongst them...............

I have said loud & often, I am not from a rich or middle class background, I am working class and lived all my formative years on a Council Estate. We had very, very little and my Dad was a coal miner, then in the 2nd world war and lastly a postman. My Mum worked 'in service' (cleaner) and did any job possible to get food on the table.  But I never recall being angry about it (apart from the school trips that Mum just couldn't afford!).  I may well have had a cry and a sulk but I don't recall feeling the urge to go and smash windows and reek havoc.

So why is this happening as it is?  Is it to do with expectation? Have we all become so wrapped up in our lives and a culture of 'I want it and I want it now'..................??? Is it about a lack of regard for 'normal' behaviours and values? Is it because we are no longer a predominantly Christian society with the values that go with believing and trying to be a 'good' person???  Is it simply that the moral values I believe I grew up with are no longer given to our young people??

I wish someone could give me answers as I sit here puzzled and anxious for the future of my once wonderful country, my own future as I get older and my childrens children in this emerging lawless and violent society that seems to know no boundaries.......