Cafe Morello

A friendly face in the centre of the fine city of Norwich

Cafe Culture - March 2007

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Friday 2nd March

Well February has come and gone and now March brings us gales and frost. Isn't our English weather just great!!??

Our customers continue to brave the elements and are appreciating the warmth in the coffee shop where we are selling lots of soup. I did that Sweet Potato and Rosemary again this week, with less chilli this time and it was lovely. I have just got 6 cauliflowers so next week it will be spiced Norfolk cauliflower. Now I admit that does not sound too inviting but it is a very tasty soup.

We had an interesting visitor this week too. Mr Hugh Fenn, who filled in more of the history of the Café on our site. It was his daughter Gail who spotted an empty office building, owned by the city council and
thought she would like to open a café on the site. This was in the late 70s. She approached her then boss, the owner of Zacs, where she worked, and he agreed. So they opened a French style café on the site, Gail was in charge and it was called La Metropolitan.

We still have a pencil drawing of the outside of the café dated 1980, so you can see what it looked like in
those days. The place was much smaller then and the kitchen was at the top, not where it is now which was part of John Olivers, the hairdressers. The café was very popular with French students from the college and
from this connection Gail went to Pau in France and visited a restaurant there called La Gourmandine. She was offered a job there and took it, so leaving La Metropolitan and the history continues.....

That's all for now
Bye Ya'll

PS There are more new photos on the gallery page.

5th March, 2007

Well we have some good news to announce today because yesterday at 4.30pm GMT, Jennie, our daughter who lives in South Carolina, gave birth to Ava Victoria who weighed in at 7lb 5 oz. We are obviously pleased as punch and can't wait to see the new arrival. WE are heading out there on Saturday so it won't be long to wait.

The Café will be in good hands because Amy will be in charge and, with Jennette there too you will still see the familiar faces. I shall be away for two weeks and Pam will stay to help Jennie with 19 month old Emma as well as the new arrival coming back at the end of April. Seems like we may be heading out at the right time as I heard on the weather news today that it is going to turn bad again for this weekend and next week. It's been lovely this weather for the last five days or so.

Yesterday was great because we were soooo busy, but with the weather so mild lots of our customers sat outside so that relieved the pressure and we hardly lost anyone through overcrowding. We had two ladies who came and waited for a table, having been recommended to come to us and this time they were determined to come in. As they had tried before but we were so busy they went away again!!! That's bad news as we hate to lose anyone, but as I've said before we do have a quick turn round so it's always worth waiting a while. It does emphasise the fact that its better to try to come early or a bit later to miss the main rush.

We had a nice surprise today too when two old work colleges came in to see us. Haven't seen them for 9 years. They looked so well and no wonder as they tell me they have just bought a place in Nova Scotia, Canada with 87 acres!!!! And the price was amazing. They tell me that they plan to be out there for 6 months of the year. I think that's brilliant and having visited Canada this year I just love the place and am very jealous Their picture is on the site !! Perhaps they will send us some pictures from Canada, now that would be neat.

Bye Y'all

Thursday 8th March

I went for a walk yesterday and saw these two thatched premises just a stones throw from the Café. It is amazing that in our city there are still thatched buildings right in the centre of the city.

The small cottage is in the Lion and Castle Yard (now there aren't many people who will know where
that is!). There is a plaque on the wall that says that the present building is formed from two of the very few surviving cottages built in the 17th Century and once common in the city. One has been restored with its original roof of reed thatch. They may have been lived in by weavers. From the 14th to the 19th centuries, Norwich was famous for its textiles 'Norwich stuffs' of woollen cloth, worsted and silk made on looms in the weavers' own houses.

There was a painter there who let me have a look inside and it was fascinating. The rooms were so small with tiny grates for the fire three coals would have filled it. Upstairs via a tiny winding steep staircase was
another room with one of the original gnarled knotted beams at shoulder height stretching across the entire room. The back windows looked original with the old glass.

I really enjoyed looking round such a lovely old cottage. There is opposite this building by another coincidence another thatched building next to the church in Westlegate which is the other picture taken during this walk about.

More later
Bye for now

Friday 9th March


*Norwich Forum*	*St Peter Mancroft*

Well, what beautiful weather we are having! The Coffee shop is still not too busy except at lunchtimes and yesterday we had lots of customers sitting outside which is nice. The extra flowers I bought last week for the window boxes and wall containers are doing well and making the yard look colourful and spring like.

I went for one of my wanders yesterday as I wanted to see the exhibition at the Forum. It's called 'Earth from the Air' a photographic portrait of our planet towards sustainable development by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. It's free and on from 1 March to 29th April and really is a must see. There are lots of these large and unusual and stunning scenes and they are outside and all round the Forum, as well as inside. There's a small leaflet you can pick up there about the exhibition and it contains little snippets of information which really makes you think. For instance '20% of the population live in developed countries. This 20% consume 60% of the world's energy, own 87% of the vehicles in the world, consume nearly 75% of the available fresh water.'!!

While I was there I took a shot of the St. Peter Mancroft tower against a beautiful blue sky which I hope you like. We had some bad news this week when we heard from our beautiful South African belle Angela, (our Saturday Girl) She has become unwell and will not be working in Cafe Morello for the foreseeable future. We wish her all the best and hope she will soon be back to full fitness. In the meantime this has given our new girl Rachel a slot to fill, so you will be seeing a lot more of her from now on. We are starting to train her up, getting her out of the sink, teaching her how to make good coffee, particularly how to give good friendly customer service, which we aim to be our main trademark, and everything else required to make her a full member of our team.

That's all for now.
Bye ya'll

Friday 23rd March

Well, this comes from Sunny South Carolina where today the temperature has been in the mid 80's and really humid. It's quite a shock to the system coming from our English weather to this.

You may guess from the picture that our Grand-daughter Ava has been born fit and well and today she is 9 days old and weighs 7lb7oz.. her mum is well too, so we now have two 'Southern Belle' grand-daughters. Pam is fully occupied helping our daughter Jennie with a very active 20 month old Emma as well as the new baby and I am helping where I can, mainly as chief chauffeur, and lifter of things.

I have managed to find a nice fishing spot in a nearby pond and have caught some red breasted sunfish, not very big but they put up quite a fight.

I have also visited Congaree National Park which is about 20 minutes drive from where we are staying and I found that fascinating. It is a floodplain forest of 22,200 acres and is the largest contiguous area of old growth bottomland hardwood forest remaining in the United States. Because the area has been protected from logging and allowed to exist in a natural state there are vast numbers of huge trees from Water Tupelo at 121 feet, American Elm 130 feet Cherrybark Oak 162 feet and Loblolly pine the tallest, at 167 feet and 15 feet in circumference. The trees that fascinate me more than any other is the Bald Cypress which have these strange roots that stick up all around the base, called knees. The odd thing is no one really knows the reason for these strange growths. I spent a lovely peaceful 2 hours in this forest which is laced with walking trails and a boardwalk to help visitors get the most from the area. I hope to go back and explore further as soon as time and baby duties permit.

We haven't forgotten about the Coffee shop and are in regular contact with Amy to find out all the news from good old Norwich. Also whenever we are out and about we are always on the lookout for good ideas to bring back to share with you all.

I have brought my binoculars and another of my hobbies is bird watching. There are American robins about the size of our blackbirds only they have a red breast, red Cardinals which are finch size but bright scarlet red, all over and lots of Mockingbirds that sing all the time, even in flight. Then there are Egrets, Lots of woodpeckers and huge buzzards, that soar lazily on the wind and thermals, that are quite spectacular but close up are rather an ugly looking bird.

So you see all in all there is so much to do I have hardly had time to do much reading! I have managed to finish one book though which I thought was a brilliant read. 'Not without my daughter' By Betty Mahmoody. I'm leaving it here for Jennie to read next and as I have registered it with The Bookcrossing site she will release it somewhere here when she has finished with it.

Well its time I closed for now until next time

Bye y'all

Wednesday 28th March.

Wow can't believe its halfway thru the second week as I sit here in South Carolina with the sun blazing down. It's been getting hotter all the time we have been here and people say its unusual to be this hot at this time of year. The thermometer on the deck at the back of the house has gone off the scale at plus 40C. Its far too hot to lay out in!!

The baby continues to do well and is putting on weight. Pam and Jennie have had a few shopping forays but as Jennie has all the clothes from Emma there is not much that Ava needs.

I have been again to the Congaree National Park and had a longer walk. taking our dog Harry, the Irish Setter, with me this time. We had a long walk thru the swamp to a lake in the middle where I watched a fisherman haul in a Catfish which he promptly put in his cooler to wait to be taken home for the pot. They are good eating but hard to skin. The water in the swamp is a dark mahogany colour and the trees are beginning to green up. There are Bobcats, wolves, wild boar and a few Puma in this area to say nothing of snakes but I saw nothing of these. There are though lots of biting insects and I had personal experience of these critters. I just loved to explore this area and with more time I might take one of the longer paths.

South Carolina is really lovely at this time of the year and there are lots of Azaleas, rhododendron, white dog wood and purple Wisteria all flowering in profusion. The wisteria in particular is amazing as it grows wild out here and reaches the top of even very high trees and is beautiful how it hangs in blankets of purple flowers.

I've been fishing again and caught some Sun Fish which are like our perch but have a pronounced orange underbelly. They are good to eat but I put these ones back.

So as you can tell its been a good trip and we are enjoying ourselves enormously. Pam is here for another 4and a half weeks but I am now looking at the fast approaching Sunday when I start my return trip.

That's all for now

Bye Y'all

Cafe Morello: 2-3 Orford Yard, Red Lion Street (opposite Debenhams), Norwich, NR1 3TB.

Telephone 01603 764441