The Artcafé Diary

For The Love Of Maisy

2009-12-02T05:56:00.000-08:00

Our chef in Colchester Matt and his wife Sophie have a beautiful 5 year old daughter called Maisy. She has cerebral palsy, severe epilepsy is visually impaired with learning and developemental delays and she could do with some more equipment and therapy to make life more pleasurable.

We're holding a fundraising event at the Mersea Centre (M.I.C.A.) on Saturday 12th December and James' band 'Skandal' are playing free of charge to help us raise at least £1,000 for Maisy. Please come along, tickets are now on sale at the Artcafé and M.I.C.A. Centre price £10. oh, and by the way we'll be holding a prize draw too with some excellent prizes!

A New Menu

2009-07-07T04:32:00.000-07:00

Well, first an apology for the lack of posts lately, it sometimes seems an almost impossible task to keep up with all there is to be done at the Artcafé, let alone keep the blogs up to date, not that we haven't had plenty to tell you all about lately. First things first, we have our new menu for the Summer season up and running with some interesting & delicious new additions. secondly we have some really wonderful new breads on offer from which we hope you'll take full advantage of, ciabatta, walnut loaf, polish rye with carraway, focaccia etc., in addition to our regular white wholemeal, granary and baguettes.

Our new menu which includes such 'lunchy' items as Pastrami on Rye & Carraway Bread with Dill Pickle Dressing & Salad Leaves, Lemony~Garlicky Chicken on a bed of Salad Leaves with Granary Bread and also Our Ploughman's Lunch ~ Mature Cheddar Cheese or Ham with 'Artcafé' Chutney, Pickled Onions Salady Bits and Granary Bread and Butter. We've also added Lemon Posset with Homemade Shortbread to our puddings.

A selection of the lovely new breads that we'll be using at the Artcafé and I must say we're very excited about them.

This Year's Baskets

2009-05-24T10:45:00.000-07:00

Upon leaving work today and locking the door I glanced up to be greeted by the sight of the 'hanging baskets of babylon'. The little beauties are just beginning to flower and trail over the baskets mmm...nice!

Ginger Cake

2009-05-08T09:20:00.000-07:00

We've just added a new cake to our arsenal of coffee/tea accompaniments, it's an extremely moist and gingery ginger cake. It's one of our Jenny's recipes and we're calling it Jenny's Double Ginger Cake.

Yet More New Jewellery!

2009-04-11T11:47:00.000-07:00

At the risk of over egging the jewellery pudding I thought I'd show you these beautiful pieces we now have, by designer Charlie Leftley. They're so new I only put them out today. As you can probably tell they are largely based around plant forms, very organic and mostly of silver, although we have some in 9ct. gold too and others incorporate some plastic (not so organic!). We really like them, so I hope you'll forgive me showing you jewellery again.

Chef Required

2009-04-03T11:09:00.000-07:00

The path of ordinary café folk is seldom smooth, so it is this week that we now have a vacancy at the Mersea Artcafé for a full time chef. If you have a genuine interest in real food, preparing and cooking it and can cope with busy shifts we are offering a full time, permanent job with the advantages of no split-shifts, no evenings and a lovely working atmosphere. So, if you are a chef looking for a new start in what we think is a great place to work then pop in to pick up an application form or e-mail us to www.jamesaweaver@aol.com we'd love to hear from you.

New Silver Jewellery

2009-03-20T06:49:00.000-07:00

We have some lovely new jewellery that has just arrived at the Artcafé in West Mersea, made by local artist Helen Burgess. Helen works mostly in silver with the addition of semi~precious stones and enamel to enhance her designs. Her range is quite wide and has started to sell already, we think there may be a present for your mum amongst it somewhere.

A New Artist

2009-03-09T09:33:00.000-07:00

We've just taken delivery today of some new handmade ceramics from artist Jane James who was living here until moving to Jersey with her family in 2007. Her work like the majority of our artists' is inspired by living on the coast and I think is guaranteed to brighten your day! Jane works in driftwood and ceramic and makes a range of hand painted pieces with speciality glazes that produce a magical lustre to capture the colours of the sea.

Three Rum Ol' Boys

2009-03-08T12:54:00.000-07:00

A trio of venerable Mersea gents enjoy a latte in the sunshine! You may well recogonise them, LtoR Peter from Datapartners and After The Fire, 'Ricey' (star of stage and screen and one time 'The Weakest Link' champion!) and Sam aka Elizaphanian.

A Beautiful Morning

2009-03-05T08:47:00.000-08:00

This was the scene this morning just before the usual routine of getting the furniture and open sign out in readiness for all you lovely customers,

with the sun getting higher in the sky now it casts wonderful shadows across the churchyard.

The mussels have proved really popular and we've taken another delivery of the little darlings, if you carry on eating them at this rate we'll have to make them a permanent addition to our menu.

Some of you may have noticed today that we've set up a 'research and development' department...

and our first project thanks to Maggie was a Treacle Tart & Custard. Oh, before you ask, I am aware that the word development has only 3 E's in it!

mmm...Mussels

2009-03-03T04:25:00.000-08:00

We're now serving a big bowl of Mussels in a White Wine, Cream and Parsley Broth, with French Bread and Butter for a very sensible £7.95. Maggie has been cooking these in this style for donkeys' years both in various restaurants and at home for us and it seems a bit daft that we haven't offered them before now at the Artcafé.

Plum and Vanilla Sponges

2009-02-25T05:08:00.000-08:00

This morning at Mersea Maggie made a batch of lovely little Plum and Vanilla sponges to brighten up a very dull, grey Wednesday and accompanied with some custard might be just what you need!

Homemade Valentine's Shortbread

2009-02-13T14:17:00.000-08:00

Maggie has been working her socks off again to bring you homemade shortbread for your cups of tea tomorrow. Appropriately heart shaped for the romantics amongst us and as delicious as ever she's managed to bake an impressive 300 before having a nice cup of tea and a sit down herself. This means however tomorrow's Orange Fruit Tea breads were finished by James, one not entirely familiar with the workings of a kitchen environment!

mmm...nice!

Our Work Here Is Almost Done

2009-02-09T06:45:00.000-08:00

That's right, we've almost finished giving our treasured café a bit of a face lift and opened again after five gruelling days on Saturday. It really just remains for us to re-hang the art work and put some finishing touches to the place. We would not have managed all the work ourselves and so we'd like to say thank you to those who dropped in to help.

Our friendly nieghbourhood plumber Andy takes an important call

The proud owner of some new shelves and a dodgy smock!

Lee getting to grips with the new chairs

Will assembling chairs

The new look kitchen

Saturday morning...business as usual

The Great British Weekend

2009-02-05T06:14:00.000-08:00

You can now read the recently published article from The Times here on Times Online. We think it paints our muddy little island in a pretty good light.

The Re-Fit Begins

2009-02-03T14:07:00.000-08:00

This was the scene from the café as we began our work yesterday morning, the snow didn't really match the forecaster's predictions for us on Mersea but as we listened to the news on the radio of big falls around other parts of the country we were quite pleased not to be completely snowbound as we were waiting for the lorry to deliver our brand new Falcon Dominator.

First on the list was ripping out all the old worn out work surface, flooring and equipment in preparation for the new stuff. This turned out to be quite cathartic in preparation for a new year, also quite a lot of it is now five years old and very tired, talking of five years older and very tired...

No sooner had we got shot of the old stuff then Andy started tiling for all he was worth

and our Holly got busy with a paintbrush too!

as for tomorrow, we've simply loads more to do, a new floor in the loo, varnish the counter, plumb in the sink, more painting, assemble the new furniture, the list seems endless and I'm very tired, so I'm off to bed to count a few sheep and contemplate my new temporary vocation as a shopfitter!

Silver Jewellery From Cornwall

2009-01-29T12:28:00.000-08:00

We now have some beautiful silver jewellery designed and made by an old acquaintance from Cornwall, Les Freke. Les still lives and works in Cornwall but has kindly let us have some of his pieces for the Artcafé to see what we make of them 'up country'. They're all silver or combinations of silver and semi-precious stones and some of his recent designs incorporate some gold too. Apologies for the fuzzy pictures, they're from my phone camera and I'll post some nice sharp ones as soon as I get time.

Important Work!

2009-01-26T13:30:00.000-08:00

We've just returned from a trip to that self assembly utopia known more commonly as IKEA in order to get new stuff to replace old and worn stuff so that the artcafé stays as beautiful and comfortable as ever. In order to give just a glimpse of how seriously James and Maggie take these essential business trips here are couple of pictures from earlier!

A Peculiar Customer

2009-01-24T14:04:00.000-08:00

Whilst working away at the espresso machine as I do most Saturdays I glanced over to a couple of folks who were just paying their bill, nothing unusual there it happens hundreds of times every day. The lady then gained my attention and beckoned me over. What she said next doesn't happen every day however(not to me anyway). "This may sound quite odd to you but would you care to look down my top?" well, I was quite busy, but sometimes to decline such an offer may offend, so I sidled over as she pulled down the front of her jumper. There between the cleavage where normally there would be...well, cleavage, was quite a large lizard. This was not something out of a Christmas cracker you understand, this was a big old fella and I at first thought it may even be a rubber one, but then he blinked at me, the lady said "he comes everywhere with me". I'm not particularly interested in lizards or reptiles in general, you know I can take 'em or leave 'em, but I think it might have been an Iguana, I am interested in people however, especially our customers of course and this lady was one of our more unusaul ones.

Happy Birthday Jenny!

2009-01-21T06:43:00.000-08:00

Our Jenny who you may recognise as one of our 'chef-lovelies' here, has a birthday today...and is now the proud owner of a brand spanking new set of knives. So, Happy Birthday Jen. from all of us.

No News, Just Greetings Cards

2009-01-20T06:00:00.000-08:00

As I can't find a great deal of big news today I thought I'd unashamedely plug these beautiful greetings cards we currently have. They're from original linocut prints by Penny Bhadresa and cost £2.50. I just love them...in fact if you haven't any special occasion to send one at the moment I'd buy a set, frame them and hang them on my wall if I were you. That said, we often have Penny's original framed prints in our gallery too!

'Brief Encounter'

'Snow Fowl'

'Me and You'

'Harvest Hares'

'Fishermen'

A Facelift

2009-01-20T05:13:00.000-08:00

We've decided that before the Spring returns the Artcafé at West Mersea is going to get a bit of a facelift. It's been a while since we gave everything a lick of paint and our poor overworked cooker [the gas range, not Maggie!] desperately needs replacing. So in order to get this essential work done we need be closed for 5 days from Monday February 2nd until Friday February 6th re-opening Saturday 7th 9am as usual.

The First Post

2009-01-17T15:11:00.000-08:00

Having dipped our toes in the blogosphere with theartistandthetartist and after some deliberation we thought this blogging thingy might well be the ideal conduit through which we could share just a few of the goings-on from the Artcafé with the wider world. Hopefully it will be of some interest to some of you out there, possibly at times it may be like watching paint dry, maybe to some it'll rest somewhere in between? The general idea is that of an online dairy-cum-scrapbook with which we can post some anecdotes, opinions, pictures etc. from our much loved café and gallery. We're really hoping to receive some from you too! So, just for now mine is a Semi Skimmed Latte with a shot of vanilla syrup with a slice of Maggie's Orange Fruit Teabread, toasted to within an inch of it's life and generously buttered.