Carmine says "A muffin a day is not the way to fit into a bar stool"

Well we did it, we're finally re-open. It has been great to be back at work and see so many of our customers and enjoy their look of joy as they saw the transformations for the first time. I thought my sister was in the room the amount of times I heard someone use her favourite word.............Stunning. No not me, the decor, or maybe the staff in their new uniforms?

 It was a hit with everyone and all my good luck cards and flowers brought a tear to my eye. Especially the hand made one from Joan and Raymond, I was so touched that people took the time to make us feel special when really thats my job. It was so good to be back doing what I do best, chatting to people,I'm amazed that I still have a voice after our 3 fabulous pre-view evenings although I did manage to get in a lot of practice when Cary came round for our marketing meetings. It makes it sound so professional doesn't it. Really it was the 2 of us having a good old chinwag over a dozen cups of tea and then trying out some of Carmine's cooking!

As the Americans would say, he and the kitchen team were really "awesome" last weekend. The food came out looking and tasting fantastic and they worked really hard to make it all appear quickly and correctly, so hard infact that they were so tired they bailed out of coming into work and we were left to come for 7am on Sunday morning. I don't think I've ever been in the restaurant at that time, it was a surreal experience. By the time Sunday evening came along the staff wanted to hospitalize me as i was drinking COFFEE. A phenomena never seen in 7 years of living in Wrexham

As you know Sunday was our "Official" re-opening day and we had quite a few people come in at various times during the day, so thank you for your support. A few of them tried the waffles at brunch and they looked amazing but as I had already tried them at least twice in every conceivable combination I wasn't tempted to steal them and run away..........I had vowed after the taste tests and easter eggs that I would never again eat anything sweet..............EVER, until Carmine decided to have a muffin making day, so yesterday we had choc chip, apple, sultana and cappuccino flavours, then today we HAD to try white choc chip, mixed apple and sultana and a savoury version with sun dried tomato and basil. I really didn't want to hurt his feelings so I dutifully ate a piece of each and then I had a sneaky one later with a cup of tea. Bliss. Well it will be a different story if I'm no longer able to fit into the bar stools,the staff know which one's I'm talking about!!!!

As the last week has been a bit of a whirlwind, it was great that Eleri managed to bring round the photo's today. They're fantastic and I managed to see everything that I had missed on Thursday night. I actually got to see what had gone on in the kitchen as I never made it down there till about 8.30. actually if truth be told I've hardly been in there at all as the staff tell me I'm interfering and to stop confusing them. I wish they had told me this earlier as with only 5 out of 270 photo's being of me, one of them is me being the "waitress". Do you think it's because I'm not photogenic or because Paddy loved to hang out in the kitchen with the hope he would get some extra samples of the food?? Oh okay, I never claimed to be Claudia Schiffer but if I had my choice, my first place to habg out would be the bar and not the kitchen. Can you imagine what the humidity would do to my hair? Well maybe that would be an improvement on the time I got squid stuck in it when we lived in Venice...............yeuch

On a more serious vein, as most of you know, on the web site we had a competition for a VIP table of 4 at our re-launch and this was won by Alison Ashbrooke who came with her partner and friends. They really seemed to be enjoying themselves and even tried our Chocolate beer with their desserts. Scrummy. I was going to post some photos of them but as they were dancing on the tables at the time.....................kidding. I do hope though that they are busy telling everyone how wonderful it all was, or at least the parts they remember.

Before I go I would just like to say a big thank you to everyone who has been reading my blog for the past 10 weeks whilst we've been closed and that you continue to do so as many of you have asked that I keep it going. Infact many of you seem to be able to recall parts of it virtually verbatim which is very worrying but also very gratifying. Some others have decided that I have enough spare time in which to write a book..............are you mad?? It takes so much time to write 4 paragraphs but maybe if I get to 1000 blogs "Confessions of a Restauranteur" will be next. Just remember don't say or do anything too silly or you might find you're the topic for next weeks blog. Take a leaf from Warren, Alistair and Garry's book, when Carmine is cooking your meal and wielding a knife, promise to support AC Milan, whatever the occasion


Hope you all pop in soon

Colette