Top treats are just a tip toe away…
Our Stollen & Mincemeat Workshop at Pritchard + Ure Cafe went well, we’ve published the recipes in our Christmas Treats section here, and we are ramping things up at the Micro Bakery – feeling the momentum as we prepare for local Christmas markets. As with the last few weeks, we are going to continue with the pattern of featuring ‘Something for You’ – an inspiring Christmassy event and ‘Something for Them’ – great gift ideas. You can find our full series of Festive Top Tip Films on our Christmas Page along with full details of all our Christmas courses.
Something for You
We are so fortunate here in Brentford to have so many local treasures, one of which is our local pub, The Griffin, which is literally at the end of our road. If you are hot on your general knowledge (and you never know which questions will come up over the Christmas board games), you will know that Brentford is the only football club in the country to have a pub on each of it’s four corners and The Griffin is our favourite of the four.
However, it’s not just distance from the doorstep that allows this pub a special place in our hearts, it’s the landlords and their brand new restaurant that make it shine above the others. Gerhard, originally from Austria, met Claire whilst working on a cruise ship and followed her back to her home town of Brentford in 1998.
As a chef, Gerhard excelled at the former Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Syon Park, and when the previous landlords moved on from The Griffin, Gerhard & Claire jumped at the chance to grab the reins at their local pub. The fantastic food began with Sunday Lunches and Wednesday Supper Clubs and, with the recent renovation of the old attached dairy, Gerhard & Claire have opened their own restaurant serving fabulous food throughout the week.
Their Christmas Menu looks amazing, with 1 course at £16.50, 2 courses at £21.50 and 3 courses at £26.50, perfect for an evening out with a group of friends, colleagues or family. Do book in as it’s getting busy – and tell them that you heard about it from us!
Something for Them
Another great Brentford business is Teapigs which, whilst you may have seen their products up and down the country and even further afield, has their head office hidden behind the High Street.
As a business, they are on a mission to get the nation drinking real, good, whole leaf tea (not that powdery dust in the bottom of paper tea bags) and founders Nick & Louise, more lovely local people, have written The Book of Tea which we think would make a super Christmas present for several of the tea drinkers in your life!
I’m a firm believer in giving books for Christmas, as well as consumables which can be enjoyed, namely food, drink and toiletries, without needing space on a shelf and constant dusting.
So, without spoiling too many surprises for my family members this year, I think this book partnered with a box of their fantastic tea will keep someone very happy throughout the holiday season and beyond.
To keep things really festive, why not treat yourself to some Spiced Winter Red Tea (my favourite) or any of their Festive Favourites from here, they have even designed this super mug that holds your tea temple in place whilst you sip!
Our ‘Micro Bakery’ continues to go from strength to strength and we have one final course before Christmas to equip you to master some bread making techniques that you can use over the holiday period. We will be adding a festive twist to this special course so come and learn how to make Apricot & Walnut bread, Cinnamon Swirls and so much more at Bread: Sweet & Savoury on Tuesday 15th December.
For details of all our other Christmas events, please see here.
Other News:
- We are baking treats and making hampers for the Discovery Channel Christmas Fair
- We’ve got a new batch of Pumpkin and Apple Chutney – perfect for the cheeseboard
- It was a delight to host a private Family Bake Off Party at the weekend, all 5 members of the family came to bake Dad’s birthday cake, a few boxes of macarons and some tasty focaccia for lunch
Jobs for this week:
- Get the wine mulling to welcome our festive course visitors
- Start creating the chocolate treats that we will be selling from the micro bakery
- Prepare our courses gift cards as they make a wonderful Christmas present!
Join us on the Journey!