Cake in Warwick and watch this space!

The Warwick Arms 
It’s 7.30am Thursday morning and I’m sitting in a very pleasant hotel in Warwick (The Warwick Arms Hotel) waiting for Jeanne and Em to come down for breakfast. I say it’s very pleasant, and it is, but my first impression, when we arrived here yesterday late afternoon, was one of slight tattiness and opportunities missed. However, as we entered the hotel from the rear where I’d parked the car, it felt warm and cosy. The charming girl at reception, which rather “Hotel Du Vin” like was just a table in the hall, was very help helpful, and was even unphased when I popped back down to say the room she’d given me was in the process of being redecorated….! She then accompanied me back upstairs with the key to the next room, just to check that that it wasn’t in the same state. It wasn’t, and in fact was really quite palatial, having character as well as comfort, and with not a pasting table in sight. Very nice.

Half an hour later, we met up downstairs in the bar for a cup of tea and a slice of carrot cake for me, a virtuous abstinence for Em and chocolate cake for Jeanne. Being my daughter she, one, couldn’t resist the cake, and two, being a very kind soul, said yes to my request to try hers (and yes, I did let her have a little taste of my carrot cake….). Anyway, cutting a deliciously long story short, I can report that it was worth traveling to Warwick just to sample the Warwick Arms cakes, delicious, moist but not too sweet. The evening meal was also good, but as is nearly always the case, it was the people who made the place, from the girl at reception, to the chap behind the bar who brought us tea and cake, to our waitress for the evening meal, and the lady who served our breakfast the next morning, they were all different characters and all charming to boot, in their different ways.  Clearly happy in their work, appearing to get on well with each other. For example, I saw the front desk being covered at one point by the lady who had served us breakfast, whilst her colleague was on a break, and the chap behind the bar brought us a part of our evening meal the night before. Just nice little examples of everyone pulling together. A real delight to see.

The AIS Show
So why were we there? Well, on Wednesday, we had attended the Index Show in Solihull, run by the buying group, Associated Independent Stores (AIS) which these days, although we are not a member (of AIS), kindly allow non-members to attend. And a very good show it was. So we spent Thursday morning going over what we’d seen, deciding what we were going to add to our ranges, and divvying up the jobs between us. All this though has taken its toll on my time for writing this email, so that’s pretty well it for this week, although over the next few weeks I will be able to tell you about all the lovely, and occasionally not so lovely, things we saw and will be stocking.

And lastly…

LSA Gems Glasses NOT dishwasher safe.
I am indebted to David, for pointing out to us that the Gems Glasses, are not in fact “Dishwasher Safe”. Honestly, it didn’t even occur to me to ask if they were, I just assumed that they were…. who makes something these days that won’t go in a dishwasher. Well, I rang Richard at LSA earlier and he confirmed this to be the case, and this is because they are hand painted.  So, if this is a problem to you, and I can well imagine it’s likely to be, then please do return them for a refund (if you bought them online, we will refund your postage as well) and please accept my apologies for the nuisance that this has caused you.

Shop The Le Creuset Sale

I’m now completely out of time, so I’ll wish you a very pleasant and peaceful weekend.

Warm regards,

Andrew

Andrew Bluett-Duncan

Director