NEWSLETTER
Welcome to Newsletter Number Eleven!
Sunday 2nd August 2009
Some breaking news from the Tea Garden...
Greetings from Godney...
The rain continued to fall on yesterday's mild, wet day, but the smiles soon broke out here at the Tea Rooms. We were told by some customers that we were featured as one of the Best 50 Tea Rooms in Saturday’s Independent colour supplement?! This was met by utter disbelief. Especially as we knew nothing about it.
John’s sped off like James Bond in the Aston Martin along the cosmopolitan narrow roads of Monte Carlo – well, the single track muddy potholes of the Somerset Levels, in the Nissan Micra – to our nearby Morrissons for a copy and confirmation. Unbelievable – it’s true! When did they come? Who was it?? What did they have to eat??? This was followed by much conjecture...
But what a great surprise! A fight breaks out as Elaine, who works with us here, bends the one mint copy we have while wetting her thumb and index finger in one long cowlick before proceeding to scrumple and scan the pages eagerly searching for the evidence. ‘KEEP IT CLEAN! DON’T BEND IT. AAARGH!’ ‘Oh Shurrrup!’ ‘YOU shurrrup! We want to keep that!!!’ (I knew we should have bought more copies – ha!!).
Brilliant. What a lovely, lovely surprise on the day that we also learned that the rescheduled village cricket match has been cancelled for the second time as the Playing Field is completely waterlogged. Let’s all eat cake!!! :o)
To see the article online click on the link below...
Kind regards from Annie, John, Cowlick Nicholls, Helen & Lucy xxx
The Old Dairy Barn, Upper Godney, WELLS, Somerset, BA5 1RY
Emails to Annie's Tea Rooms Garden & Gallery: annieandjohn@theolddairybarn.co.uk
Welcome to Newsletter Number Ten!
Sunday 22nd March 2009
Some jottings from the (DOUBLE Award Winning!!) Tea Garden...
Greetings from Godney. Day after day after day we are woken by the flat gold light on the red brick wall of The Old School next door - another beautiful Spring morning. The fields are full of lambs and the riverbank is full of triumphant daffodils. It is peaceful and still and Sunday. Mother's Day, Laetare Sunday and the time of the Spring Equinox. A day of rest. A lazy morning followed by a lazy afternoon. Until a phone call from our neighbour who tell us that her daughter has called to say that Annie's Tea Rooms has come top in the Observer Food Monthly Annual Food Awards 2009 for Southern England in the BEST CHEAP EATS CATEGORY, voted for by the readers!!!! It 3:40pm. We race into Wells to get the paper to check it out. It's true!! Almost true - we are runners up in the category along with three other places and, it seems, the only foodie business in any category in Somerset in this years awards! John was beaming and I went quiet. Can't believe it. Honestly. We open half the week and half the year. We're only little. We wonder how many people must have voted for us. Feel a bit humble to be honest. So - you know - we just want to say thank you if you voted for us.
www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2009/mar/20/observer-food-monthly-awards-results
We open again in less than 3 weeks on Good Friday, 10th April.
Kind regards from Annie & John
We are passionate about what we do and we care about how we do it!
Welcome to Newsletter Number Nine!
Thursday 13th November 2008
Some jottings from the (Award Winning!) Tea Garden...
Greetings from Godney. Well yesterday was a gorgeous, golden autumn day. The sun was shining brightly on the wet, apple covered lawn. John was on the roof fixing the chimney for the woodburning stove which we (the royal 'we') have moved from our lounge into the Garden Room - (part of our winter projects). At 4am a giant yellow moon hung in the mist over the fields. At dawn the starlings came like a large black bag of chattering rags, landing briefly on the Bramley Apple tree to squabble and fight over who got what for breakfast, before swooping off, as one, over the river to The Old Vicarage orchard in the misty distance. And today? Lovely rain!
It seems a long time since the summer now but we had a lovely time cooking and inventing new lunches, cakes and desserts, along with the joy of making well loved favourites and enough jam from fruit grown in local gardens to last us (we hope) until next year's crop. We enjoyed many memorable days with birthday parties, aniversaries and at least one or two (!) lazy, sunny afternoons. And a lot of...rain.
We got our first review after an unknown visit by someone from the Restaurant Guide UK who hand-pick restaurants and cafes to review across the UK and Europe and the USA.
http://www.restaurant-guide.com/annies-tea-rooms-garden-and-gallery.htm
Then, right at the very end of the season, we had a visit from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, his head chef Gill and a film crew who were in the village to shoot some scenes about foraging for food (we have lots of walnut trees in Godney). All part of his 'Autumn' series, recently aired, on Channel 4. Bizarrely, the week before, after reading his article in the Observer Food Monthly magazine, I had started making his featured Honey & Almond cake. It was absolutley, lovely, yummy, delicious. We were NOT expecting him to turn up a week later. To my horreur, when he and his head chef asked if we had any they could try (knowing that we had two pieces in the fridge we were keeping for ourselves) John and I simultaneously replied Yes/NO! He did try it and he did like it. :o) He says he'll be back.
Before we closed it was also suggested, more than once, that we also take part in the
Observer Food Monthly Awards 2009. It's a chance to vote for
"your favourite restaurants, hippest bars, cheapest chic eats, best places for Sunday lunch ... "
If you take the time to vote online (click, click click) and nominate your favourite places to eat and drink/best ethical restaurant you know or the best 'cheap eats' place you know (under £15 per head - (that's us then!) and so on and you could win all sorts good prizes and you could help small, local businesses like us to continue. The closing date for entries is Novemeber 21st - so it's a DO IT NOW thing! All you have to do is click on the link below and follow it through!
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/foodawards
We also entered, for the first time, the Taste of the West Awards in the Tea Room/Cafe class. The aim of Taste of the West is to develop the region's exceptional food and drink industry. Happily, we have just learned that, after two rounds of judging, we have won the Bronze Award in Somerset - an area that includes Bristol and Bath. We are thrilled!
We have lots we are thankful for and lots to look forward to - not least of which will be reopening next Spring when, once again, we will be able to share with you the garden, the food and the company that we love so much.
We are passionate about what we do and we care about how we do it!
The Genuine Restaurant Guide since 1997
Restaurant Guide UK
You Are In
Annie's Tea Rooms, Garden & Gallery
Tucked away in an attractive part of Somerset, in Upper Godney, is Annie's Tea Rooms, Garden and Gallery. This quaint and delightful little place, looking out over the river Sheppey is indeed manna for the senses, a restorative for the spirit and a cure for the soul.
Homemade food tops the menu and you might wish to indulge in a hearty lunch of fresh penne pasta with a choice of smoked salmon, pesto and pine nuts or Riverbarn salmon fishcakes. The traditional cream tea with scones, clotted cream or jam is a big highlight while desserts such as orange and almond cake, banana, fig and almond tea bread or warm chocolate fudge cake with clotted cream are hot favourites among the regulars who flock here at the drop of a jam butty.
Annie's supports local artists and exhibit their works in regularly held events. But what really draws people there is the great food, the serene riverside ambience, the blushing tulips in the gardens and the friendly and helpful staff.
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Email: annieandjohn@theolddairybarn.co.uk
Web: www.anniesteagarden.co.uk