A New Shop & A New Partner

In case you're wondering 'have the artistandtartist been kidnapped by Somali pirates or worse...Tollesbury pirates'? then here's a post to allay your fears. The tartist and I have been deeply submerged in the planning stages of a new venture to enhance the Artcafé business and more importantly what we can offer our lovely customers. So unfortunately the blogosphere has had to take a back seat in recent weeks. Intrigued? Well, we've just taken on a new premises two doors down from our Mersea café in Coast Road and have been transferring our office (filing cabinets, computers, desks and box files etc.) from our spare bedroom at home, to this new shop. The next step will be to create a bigger and better kitchen/prep. room at the rear behind the office to better cope with all of the cake baking etc. so that we can continue our 'homemade' ethos on a larger scale. As for the new shop at the front, well, this we will be fitting out after the Christmas break.

In addition to a new shop we've also aquired a new business partner Jenny, our eldest daughter. Jenny has been working for us for nearly three years now and we felt it was high time that she had an equal say in the way things are done at the artcafé. Jenny brings with her a background in retail and has been training in the kitchen under the tartist's tutelage for some time now.



Our new partner Jenny

We've been amused by some of the stories and gossip that has got back to us as to what use our new shop will be put. The truth is we intend to be selling all the popular things that we make ourselves at the Artcafé over the counter for you to enjoy at home, on your boat, in your garden, at your beach hut...wherever. In addition to this we will be offering lots of good quality food and 'foodie' stuff and I expect it's getting a bit boring to say 'local', 'free-range', 'organic' etc. when talking about food...but that's exactly what we'll be aiming for here on Mersea.
Don't be surprised to find some food related art for sale on our walls here too.

So with all this buzzing around in our heads we took a bit of a reconnaissance party to Borough Market a couple of weeks back to get a few ideas to add to the ones we already have and what an eye opener it proved.





The tartist eyes up someone else's cupcakes



...and gateaux



We found fruit and veg. of the finest quality, and more varieties of wild and 'tame' edible fungi than you could wave a stick at!





Not everyone's cup of tea but we found wonderfully fresh meat and game and at Neal's Yard Dairy, floor to ceiling cheeses from Britain and Ireland.



To enable everything we've gleaned so far to sink in and also so that we don't push ourselves too hard we've provisionally set a date to open our new shop on the 1st March 2010. So expect more news as things progress over the coming weeks...and we'll try not to leave it so long this time!

TBTE 04.10.09 ~ Strood Channel

So already it is October, blimey October again with all of its sunsetty golden splendour and a dew on the grass most mornings. my father has just turned 70, making me very aware of the passage of time...not just for him but for all of us. We had a good old family gathering yesterday with birthday cake and photo albums to help him celebrate. And now the baby of the artistandtartist family has recently left for university, making us all feel a bit older and reaching another milestone for us as a family.

Starbucks

I can remember clearly the first time I had a coffee in a Starbucks café. It was quite a few years ago now, an in store branch in Selfridges in London. I can't recall what I was doing there in the first place but I do recall thinking 'oo-er so this is what they're like' as I stood in line with my plastic tray trying to decipher their almost impenetrable coffee jargon. I clearly remember the first Mc Donalds 'restaurant' coming to London too, but that's another story. Now, the disappointment of my first Starbucks experience is still clear in my mind and my opinion about the overpriced product I queued up for is still the same today, although I now know a shedload more about how decent coffee ought to be enjoyed.

Here are a few points to illustrate what mean

1/ Cappuccino (and more especially espresso) should be served in a porcelain, bowl shaped cup, kept nice and hot on top of your machine (the bowl shape helps retain the 'crema') and not in a flat bottomed 'builder's' mug.

2/ The ideal cappuccino ratio is approx. 1/3 espresso, 1/3 steamed milk & 1/3 Foam. Not 2/3 Foam 1/3 'tepid' espresso.

3/ The customer should always be offered a coffee spoon and not have to delve through his/her foam with a 'lolly stick'

4/ The beverage should still be nice and hot when it reaches the customer (especially Café Latte) not just warm to facilitate faster turnover of tables.

I could go on but I think you see what I mean, so, you can imagine our amusement yesterday upon reading this little piece in yesterday's Guardian...

Am I wrong in feeling that somehow that little vignette enshrines all that is both socioculturally unappetising and fiscally unsound about Starbucks? Not at all. Socioculturally, it is obvious that few independent coffee-dispensing entities are likely to survive the homogenising onslaught. And as for fiscal weakness – well, yes, it turns out that if your business model involves saturating local markets, no matter what the rental cost of many prestigious locations, with products made with imported coffee and aimed particularly at the young and affluent, especially those working in the banking and finance sectors, you inadvertently create the conditions for the perfect shitstorm once demand and sterling collapse. Ta-daaa!

TBTE 29.09.09

It is somewhat reassuring that in this digital era of gigantic flat screens, i-pods and ever decreasing attention spans that watching the sun set over Feldy marshes is still a deeply satisfying thing to experience. This evening Mabel (our Lab.) and I watched for twenty minutes as the sun went below the horizon and with hardly a breath of wind, mirror like, the creek reflected the sky. This scene with the exception of a few details has been the same for centuries.

Colchester Open Studios

My Little Studio

Well, 'Open Studios' has started today, so if you'd like to come and see me and my little garden studio please drop in. My opening times are 26th & 27th September 11.00am ~ 6.00pm and 3rd & 4th October 11.00am ~ 6.00pm...I'd be pleased to see you. For more detailed information about the various participating artists and their opening times take a peek at 'Colchester Open Studios'

Open Studios

'The Packing Shed' ~ Watercolour

It's that time of year again when participating artists open their studios to the general public on selected weekends as part of 'Colchester Open Studios'. So, for me and many others, things have been getting rather hectic in preparation for the event. This in part is responsible for the appalling dearth of posts in recent weeks and for this I apologise but my paints and brushes have had to take priority.

SFTW ~ Blue Lips

...I thought this was so brilliant I downloaded the whole album!