Tag: Plymouth

The Hutong Cafe, Plymouth.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Food ( but this is not a food blog), Home Towns, Interior Design, Interior design inspirationLeave a comment

My dogs are urban dogs, they like a circular walk on tarmac with plenty of green space to run around on and a dog friendly cafe for a bit of a nap. I’ve been trying to recreate that for them in Plymouth. Today I struck gold for all of us.

We parked at Devils Point and had half an hour of fabulous sniffs and running about before descending the steps into the Royal William Yard to call in at Ocean Studios before taking the road back to Devils Point.

The Hutong Cafe just outside the grand gates of the Royal William Yard used to be a pub. Now it’s a stylish cafe serving great coffee.IMG_9451I’m not the main coffee addict at theoldmortuary.design but I do know a good cup of coffee when the bubbles on the crema reflect beautiful oily-looking copper colours on the  top of a simple black coffee. So there we go, top marks for the look of a black coffee, top marks for flavour. My piece of cake was great too , but as usual I’m really more about the style of the place.

Hutong has great style. Easy on the eye, industrial retro , done impeccably, which is not always  as simple as it looks.IMG_9452

Style is also about the ambience  of the place and Hutong gets it right. Dogs are welcome either outside or inside, nearer to the front of the cafe.IMG_9459George, one of the owners, was welcoming when we arrived and he and Owen the barista  were involved in conversations with everyone in the cafe at some point during my visit. Later I met Jack , George’s brother and co-owner, who is equally engaging. George and Jack have great plans for the future of this cafe and they were a pleasure to natter to. Chris the chef made a brief appearance to smile , completing what seems to be a winning team. A cafe this good is a great addition to the area and a fabulous place to take the most dedicated of coffee lovers.IMG_9457

Queueing to put nobody in the chair.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Home TownsLeave a comment

IMG_0429Children and their parents were puzzled by me today. Puzzled is putting it mildly , quite frankly they thought I was mad.

The chair is an oversized deck chair that easily accommodated 6 children just before my turn.

Queueing not to put someone in the seat was an alien concept to the children in the queue and , to be fair, their parents. I had to virtually push the little buggers off when it was my turn. Something that didn’t please the devoted parents.

Of course without a human in the seat you can get no sense of scale unless you know the local geography very well.

So perhaps I was a little mad.

What a difference the sun makes.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Home Towns2 Comments

I make an irregular, regular trip into Plymouth a couple of times a month. The irregularity is regulated by the Sourdough levels in my freezer. About a year ago I discovered the wonder that is Jacka Bakery , 38 Southside Street, Plymouth.IMG_9198I’ve been a sourdough hunter for years. Always on a quest for perfection. Easy enough when I lived in London where the population can support any number of Artisan bakers, not so easy elsewhere. Don’t even start me on supermarket sourdough or the debacle that was making my own. Imagine the pleasure I get from knowing this fabulous bakery is within easy reach ; the bread freezes and defrosts easily ,remaining in perfect condition.

Bread is not their only output , they make the best chocolate croissants and have a Cakes of the Day selection. There are also a few tables for coffee to accompany the cake. I’ve not tried the coffee .

The Coffee addict at theoldmortuary.design is away in Cheltenham, instagramming the coffee shops and bakeries of Gloucestershire.

Anyway I digress , my last visit to Jacka prompted a vibrant painting of bright daylight reflected in the Barbican Harbour. The painting was created using the imagery of several photographs of oil, paint and some litter floating on the surface in a corner of the harbour.IMG_9082.JPGIt was a jewel bright day but bitterly cold as I took a series of photos that became this painting.

This morning, a much more typical Plymouth day, the view could not be more different.IMG_9196

That is pretty yucky and hasn’t inspired me to crack open the paints. However as I returned from the bakery a man was fishing out all the debris and detritus to make the Barbican look pretty again. It’s Pirate Weekend , a historically inaccurate , festival of all things piratey and plundery. ( I say historically inaccurate simply because it is unimaginable that Plymothians, back in the day , concentrated on getting litter out of the harbour in preparation for imminent Pirate arrival)

I however would have made sure my bread supplies were up to scratch, you never know who might pop in for toast .

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So there you have it , goodness knows how many WordPress training  topics I’ve covered there . Thank you for your patience , I’m off to hashtag now and then I’m done.