Saturday 30 July 2016

Eating at The Ivy. Twice!

This week I was lucky enough to score not one but two (!) invites to the shake-down shifts at the soon-to-be-trading Ivy Brasserie in Clifton, Bristol.

The Ivy has five locations in London and they have recently taken over the former Nat-West building in Bristol. A pal of mine is pals with the Sous chef and thus we had a good shout at coming up Donalds on the lottery of name-gathering emails the team had gathered. We scored two invites with one for breakfast and one the day after for lunch. Four of us had breakfast and a day later two of us sampled lunch. For breakfast it was me, Mike, Che and Jemma B. Che and I went back the day after for lunch. There were some minor and easy stipulations: we had to try different menu items across the party and we had to pay for drinks, but the food was wholly FOC! We were also asked for feedback via survey-monkey and I happily penned 500 words. No harm to sing for my supper.

The service was open, fine, unstuffy, genuine and with the humility of a new team coming together to try it all out on real customers who knew the score. In fact it was excellent. I thought this was a great way to spread the word and work in a real situation; no brand damage and only good  exposure of the whole thing. I scoffed mightily and loved every minute. My appetite for scoff and for a well laid table was truly satiated!

All day breakfast and fish and chips one day after the next. Great fun!


















Wednesday 13 July 2016

The best thing since sliced...

Here is a video all the way from a supermarket in Spain where you do not have to ask the bakery team to slice your loaf....you can operate the machine yourself! This really appeals as a purchase the next time I am visiting there, but internet research has informed me that such a slicer is also available here in Bristol at a Sainsbury's about three miles away. Would it be too tragic to drive there especially? Perhaps not.

Enjoy this little slice of BlogBS5 content. You know you love it, it's right up there with my slice of bacon shaped exactly like Australia!