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Bob's Blog: May 2008
30 May 2008
I have just returned from the café with the long awaited
news that the Council have given us the green light to install the kitchen
extractor unit. This now means we can start our soft opening of the Café around
the 11 June with hot and cold drinks along with cold
snacks.
The extreme (in my view, as I can only speak for myself; yet others far more expert in the field agree) Council requirements have
seen the unit cost spiral up from £7,500 to £13,000!
However, without it, you could be forgiven for believing
the following Blog News Flash..............
"Commuters crossing Putney Bridge in
Fulham have been accosted by the aroma of fresh food coming form The Pryors Bank
Café located in Bishops Park"
"Queues are now forming to sniff the
aromas, traffic slowed to a halt as black cab drives were queuing for the only
fresh cooked salt beef west of Park Lane"
"One man was seen holding a fresh
organic wholemeal sandwich filled with salt beef rocket and spicy gherkin. When
approached by the authorities he ran off screaming real food"
"The chef was taken in for
questioning but was released shortly after as he was the only one who could
carve the salt beef................ Staff made a statement...... they said sorry they let the
smell of fresh wholesome food waft around Putney and Fulham"
"They went on to say that they had
called for a technician but the extractor system is so sophisticated and
expensive that the only man that can fix it will not back for a week, as he is
on his way to the space station, to fix the WC"
Coffee machine arrives next week! Angelo our café
Manager is frothing at the mouth to get it open; it seems that we will not get much
sleep next week as we have coffee tasting and training, the caffeine rush will
do us all in.
If I do not make much sense next time, you will know
why......
Bob
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28 May 2008
Question: What has the BBC and an oven got in common?
Answer: You can use both to cook up a story....
Today our brand new oven and the BBC arrived.........new lights went up.........walls were painted........sinks were fitted all at the same time as we had a minor flood, and a near heart attack at the cost of the new extractor unit.......yes still no answer.
Father Joe Hawes the vicar of All Saints Church Fulham and our vicar in residence, a true Gent and a blinder to boot, is going to say prayers tonight at the Town Hall before the council meeting, the subject of his lesson tonight is going to be our extractor unit, or if you are of another denomination, an exorcist machine.
Yes a machine to rid the café of the aroma from fresh herb homemade sweet corn cakes with red onion, char grilled sirloin steak, poached salmon with jersey Royals, and a whole host of aromas that will corrupt anyone that should stroll by.
Father Joe will pray for a plague of common sense and lets us get on, and just perhaps save £5,000; enough to pay for 35 elderly vulnerable ex-Servicemen and women who love our Sunday Lunches at the Sir Oswald Stoll Foundation 51 times a year and the big one on Christmas Day......Good Luck Joe.
Today was good! The BBC sent down a fine reporter to interview one of our new apprentices and me; I do not want to spoil what is to come on the TV and Radio, but I think we got the message home.
Why am I doing this? It is a question I
am asked often:
Commitment gets me up in the morning
Belief sets the course
Team sprit sails the ship
Goodwill steers us all for a safe voyage to a homeport
My Quote of the day: "if you go fishing for sprit, bait the hook with hope, it works for us"...I knew I have should have joined the Navy!
I hope it does for you in whatever you want for your future, but if you get hungry in the meantime call into Pryors Bank Café, where we will fill your tummy full of fine food, and your heart full of passion.
Bob
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Just got back from Pryors Bank. The sun was out, the grass lawn had been cut
and the park looked wonderful in its summer colours. The church bells were
calling all to Sunday service; it was just like being in a small town like
Midsummer, but without the murders!
I could visualise the terrace with customers sat eating breakfast and reading
their papers, with the kids running around on the lawn, the joggers doing what
joggers do and the Sunday School in full swing inside our café.
I did not mention that each Sunday morning we will turn out café over to the
Sunday School from 09.30 till 11.30 for Sunday School teaching. The church are
pleased, the parents are pleased and so are our staff who get to lie in; except
our Chef Tom and his apprentices who will be busy getting the Sunday Lunch
ready for you all to enjoy.
The aroma of fresh coffee roasting and prime rib of beef will make for some
hungry customers, no doubt, so we will have to be ready for the rush.
A lot to do until that day arrives though. New lights went up today, there will
be a new ceiling by next Wednesday and our new kitchen starts to be fitted on
Tuesday. Menus need to be tested, any volunteers? Uniforms to be fitted, supply
lines in places, coffee and coffee machine testing...it's too late to turn back
now!
Bob
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16 May 2008
For those of you who are not familiar with Bishop's Park, it is nestled on the banks of the River Thames between Putney Bridge and Fulham Football Club. As you enter the park from Putney Bridge, on your left hand side is the Pryors Bank building.
In 1957 Pryors Bank was Bishop's Parks' 'upmarket' Refreshment Pavilion or as my brothers and I would call it the 'Posh cafe'. Our parents would always tell us to behave in that section of the park, as very close to the Pavilion was the fountain, and flowering garden beds designed by the park's gardeners to honour, amongst other things, the Boy Scouts 50th Jubilee year, and different cap badges of the regiments that had fought in the wars.
The flowering beds are bare now but the debt remains and if nothing else by helping the new generation of those who have served our country but are now suffering, we are replanting the seeds for a brighter future for our apprentices, the park, the building, our new customers and their little ones.
It is then perhaps fitting that 50 years on I came back to the Pryors Bank location and started to visualise the future of the Beef Kitchen. How could my original idea of the Beef Kitchen expand to help more men like me, and my fellow 'Beef Kitcheners'?
I hope that those who also served the Crown and the nation will benefit from what we are able to do at Pryors Bank.
For me, Pryors Bank a building frozen in time. It needed to be reawakened and in my mind what better way than to try and recapture the long, and perhaps forgotten purpose of this building, which was to provide refreshments to park users and visitors.
I wanted to take its original purpose a little further and provide a refresher for many of the men I have come across during my time living at the Sir Oswald Stoll Foundation in Fulham; an estate where ex-Servicemen and women who, for want of a better description, have lost their way in life. People who have served our Nation and often through no fault of their own, have either become homeless, or are simply in need of help and support.
The Pryors Bank plan began to take shape, and with the wonderful and able assistance of the Chief Executive of the Oswald Stoll foundation, two of its generous supporters and All Saints Church Fulham, that plan is now soon to become a reality.
From wining the tender set out by the landlord of Pryors Bank to the many months of grant and planning applications, we are some three weeks away from brewing our first cup of coffee, and welcoming both our first new apprentices and customers.
Building work is now underway. We are not altering the structure of the building, only re-equipping it in order that we can supply quality homemade food, training, and support to our apprentices. I believe the true heart of this building will beat again.
Bob