Hey there, what a beautiful day The sun is shining and finally I am having a well deserved day off. Well realistically I've been to work for just an hour so it's really just like a full day off for me. I was told recently that my job must be fantastic, just pottering about the restaurant, chatting to customers and propping up the bar !! Maybe its a compliment that I make it look so easy, at least that what Cary reckons. Instead of writing a confessions book maybe it should be a self help book with chapters on how to survive a 70 hour week,how to calm down an irate Italian Chef, how not to eat all the muffins...............although so far I havent actually managed that yet!! How to taste 50 wines and not get drunk.............nope not managed that either. Ok so my alternative career path of becoming someone creative doesn't look feasible. Think I will just stick with running the hotel for now.
I am constantly amazed that alot of people don't know we're also a hotel being that we're called The Lemon Tree Italian Restaurant Bar and Hotel, well we're also asked if we're a Chinese about the same amount of times as we're asked if we deliver pizzas so maybe I really shouldn't be surprised
It was so much fun at the weekend as we had most of the customers going upstairs to see our bedrooms which have been re-decorated at the same time as the restaurant.I very rarley talk about the accomodation part of the hotel in my blog for some reason, I think it's because its easier to chat about food and wine but sometimes the best customer stories come form the hotel part. By no means can we compare ourselves to Hotel Babylon................honestly we have never poisoned a football team or anything but a few of the saucier episodes brought back some memories but maybe I shouldn't really share these with you just yet?? Lets just say that the lost property department can be a source of constant amusement.
Now we've been open a few weeks, the restaurant has been going well, we are now really starting to get busy which is just great and the accomodation bookings for the hotel part are really looking up too. We've managed to regain a few of our regulars . Some of the girls checked in today for the first time since we have been re-open and they were sooooooooo enthusiastic, I mean over the top enthusiastic rushing about into each others bedrooms to see what it was like and positively screaming with excitement. I had thought this was slightly over the top until they started to spill the beans about the other bed and breakfast places they had stayed whilst we were closed. Not impressed that some places don't offer a choice of white or brown toast?? Can you imagine how excited they'll be in the morning when we give them fresh homemade muffins. I mean hotel breakfasts can sometimes be the downfall of a good overnight stay, now that we are also trying to encourage people to come to us for breakfast we are trying to pull out all the stops possible. Its just a pity I only focus on the unhealthy options, don't think I'll ever go mad over the choice of yoghurt, fruit salad and muesli. Bring on bacon sarnies, croissants and muffins :) I'm just about as obsessed with these muffins as I am with the "Twilight" series. I have to have an Edward moment every day. Its great when Carmine calls me "bella" which means beautiful in Italian.............okay so its not very often but I imagine its Edward and I swoon just a little bit more than usual, Have you checked out the photo of me making puppy dog eyes at him yet on the website. Yeuch, do I do thast often?? Maybe he was calling me "bella"................
Ciao Ciao
Colette
Wednesday, 21 April 2010
Wednesday, 14 April 2010
Its not all about winning, its the taking part that counts!
Domesticity reigns in my house tonight................yep I've been left to cook . How rubbish is that, Carmine has been so busy in the garden tidying it up in the hope of sunny weather and I'm left to organise dinner. Well I'm trying to recreate one of the dishes from the menu for the simple reason we didn't go shopping and the freezer at home is dismally stocked. We will be having Tagliatelle with a sausage and tomato sauce, minus the olives and Pecorino as De Pasquale Mansions doesn't run to exotic ingrediants. I really wish Carmine's secrets page was up and running on the website then I would have a better idea if I was doing it properly. Oh well, he always knows that I won't cook again if he moans too much. Vindictive or what?? Oh for those who don't know my house here is called "De Pasquale Mansions" and the one in Italy is "De Pasquale Heights" I forget why Liz named them that but its stuck and its what we call home,
Getting back to my cooking abilities, well I'm not that bad, nowhere near as good as Carmine obviously but If it's just one meal then I usually can cope fairly well, unless I'm left to do breakfast. That's where it gets dicey and the one day of the week we see how well the smoke alarm works. We had a bit of a competition going at work some time ago as one night I cooked Risotto for the staff and they said it was better than Carmine's ! Flattering but a sure fire way never to be fed again Then with her competitive spirit, Emma challenged Clare...........you would get the impression we had nothing to do?
Talking of Risotto, it has been fun to have a different flavour every day, so far we have had, mushroom, chicken and mushroom, mediterranean vegetables, seafood, squid ink and my favourite so far, Chicken and Asparagus.I'm sure that we'll probably have a competition to see what absurd creation we can convince Carmine to put on the menu. We do that sometimes, create a competiton for the restaurant staff just to give us a bit more of an incentive, not that we get bored or have an amzingly short attention span, but sometimes its just nice to do something a wee bit different. Usually the winner has early signout, a glass of wine or the likes. Just now I think the best prize would be a bottle of the Redorvelik Cider. Its got a hint of Strawberry and a twist of Lime through it. Now I don't particularly like Cider but this is amazing. Quite far up the list of staff favourites along with the chocolate beer I was telling you about last week. We really do have some amazing new products and Cary was telling me that she stumbled across the website for our designer champagne and seemingly this guy designs clothes too that are worn by Beyonce, Madonna, Paris Hilton and David Beckham. Ha, does that mean I'm finally cool, hip or trendy..........using those words possibly not. What is the word of the moment?? Ooh before I forget he's called Cristian Audigier and one of his designs is Ed Hardy............my thoughts exactly...........WHO?? anyway in keeping with our staff theme, we have a competition on the new website to win a fantastic bottle of his Rose Champagne. Just visit http://www.lth-wrexham.com/ and pop in your details and soon my blog will move there too although I will still post it here too as I know you would miss me if I disappeared. Actually, I'm still amazed how many people read it although on Saturday someone had visited the website and asked if I would be beginning the blog sometime soon. Guess she's not a facebook or twitter fan?? and here was me thinking I had finally become famous...............guess we'll have to wait a very long time before we have Champagne Colette, still it never hurts to dream
See you soon
Colette
Getting back to my cooking abilities, well I'm not that bad, nowhere near as good as Carmine obviously but If it's just one meal then I usually can cope fairly well, unless I'm left to do breakfast. That's where it gets dicey and the one day of the week we see how well the smoke alarm works. We had a bit of a competition going at work some time ago as one night I cooked Risotto for the staff and they said it was better than Carmine's ! Flattering but a sure fire way never to be fed again Then with her competitive spirit, Emma challenged Clare...........you would get the impression we had nothing to do?
Talking of Risotto, it has been fun to have a different flavour every day, so far we have had, mushroom, chicken and mushroom, mediterranean vegetables, seafood, squid ink and my favourite so far, Chicken and Asparagus.I'm sure that we'll probably have a competition to see what absurd creation we can convince Carmine to put on the menu. We do that sometimes, create a competiton for the restaurant staff just to give us a bit more of an incentive, not that we get bored or have an amzingly short attention span, but sometimes its just nice to do something a wee bit different. Usually the winner has early signout, a glass of wine or the likes. Just now I think the best prize would be a bottle of the Redorvelik Cider. Its got a hint of Strawberry and a twist of Lime through it. Now I don't particularly like Cider but this is amazing. Quite far up the list of staff favourites along with the chocolate beer I was telling you about last week. We really do have some amazing new products and Cary was telling me that she stumbled across the website for our designer champagne and seemingly this guy designs clothes too that are worn by Beyonce, Madonna, Paris Hilton and David Beckham. Ha, does that mean I'm finally cool, hip or trendy..........using those words possibly not. What is the word of the moment?? Ooh before I forget he's called Cristian Audigier and one of his designs is Ed Hardy............my thoughts exactly...........WHO?? anyway in keeping with our staff theme, we have a competition on the new website to win a fantastic bottle of his Rose Champagne. Just visit http://www.lth-wrexham.com/ and pop in your details and soon my blog will move there too although I will still post it here too as I know you would miss me if I disappeared. Actually, I'm still amazed how many people read it although on Saturday someone had visited the website and asked if I would be beginning the blog sometime soon. Guess she's not a facebook or twitter fan?? and here was me thinking I had finally become famous...............guess we'll have to wait a very long time before we have Champagne Colette, still it never hurts to dream
See you soon
Colette
Wednesday, 7 April 2010
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
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
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