I have often walked past the Wig and Mitre,l on Steep Hill,vthe first time I have set foot inside.
I have often walked past the Wig and Mitre but never ventured inside. I bumped into a friend and she invited me to join her for a drink.
Pleasant inside, far larger than would believe from the outside, many rooms, two bars.
A poor selection of beer. Better selection of beer to be found in nearby Dough LoCo, a pizza parlour.
Whenever I have passed by the Cocktail Gift Shop on Steep Hill I have found closed. A pop-up shop for Christmas?
Having missed the Walk and Ride, I walked up Steep Hill, and to my surprise I found the cocktail shop open.
Out of curiosity, I popped in. I also had a reason to pop in, I wanted a cocktail shaker.
Girl behind the counter helpful and knowledgeable but the shop a joke. A cocktail shop but no cocktail shaker. OK they did have a cocktail shaker but it was cheap crap. It was of the quality would expect to find in Lakeland or Wilkinsons not in a specialist cocktail shop.
Agave syrup? Er no.
In Grind, the point is made, require quality ingredients. Then particular emphasis on cocktails.
We’d had Espresso Martinis before – they’re a classic – but back then we didn’t realize how many corners were being cut in making them, even in the best places. You see, keeping a proper coffee machine clean and running is a lot of work, and even with the best intentions, standards can slip. After Espresso Martinis were invented in the ’90s, bars first tried using bottled espresso – a pretty miserable fate for coffee. Before long, all sorts of grisly concoctions of E-number flavourings and preservatives were being used. So by the time 2011 came around, even the places we had trusted for a good drink were serving something a far throw from what we imagine genius bartender Dick Bradsell had invented all those years ago. But we didn’t know any of that yet.
What am I getting in a botte of ready made cocktails? An espresso martini requires fresh made espresso, not crap out of a bottle.
Is not half the fun making ones own?
To say the least, the shop is an embarrassment.
I checked out the website for the cocktail shop. Not much help, lots of pretty pictures, that went nowhere, no information. The same true of their Instagram account, a rather sad pathetic looking espresso martini, no information on contents.
I then tried a sister site, Cocktail Delivery, minimal information on content, barely legal, if legal.
Nothing to tell me what any of these contents actually are, or the percentages. What Russian vodka?
Coffee flavoured liquor (note flavoured not coffee liquor). A professional would use Mr Black or make their own.
I have not the faintest idea what is blended coffee. Could be anything. Could be Nescafe.
Sugar syrup, no mention of ratio of sugar to water.
What is shipped is described as an espresso martini kit. It is not. A kit would be individual measures, with instructions on how to make. Contrast with for example a recipe box from Riverford, includes ingredients (including spices), instructions (assumes have the necessary pots and pans). What is supplied by the cocktail shop is a bottle to be emptied, this is akin to a ready meal that pop into the oven. What it is not is a cocktail kit.
A video the making of espresso martini has to be the worst cocktail video I have encountered. It appears to be a video of two parts. The first part the how, only no explanation, no description of the ingredients, the second emptying the contents of a bottle.
Chocolate on an espresso martini. Yuk. Even worse, poor quality industrial chocolate from Cadbury’s. How to destroy a cappuccino, dump chocolate on top. And would not use chocolate, would use cacao . What does this say of the quality of ingredients used in the espresso martini?
When think not possible, it gets worse.
Only three reviews on Google Maps. And guess what, one of the three, a 5* review, none other than Jim Claffey co-owner of the shop. And it gets worse. Another 5* review, the only review, is of Cocktail Delivery, for which the cocktail shop is a front, which Jim Claffey also happens to own.
The embarrassment does not end there. A scribbler for The Lincolnite wrote a glowing article about the gift shop (reads like paid for promotion). A picture to accompany the article had the caption ‘The Cocktail Gift Shop in Lincoln’s Bailgate’, the picture shows the shop on Steep Hill. Was the scribbler plied with so many cocktails he did not know where he was? [see New cocktail gift shop opens in Lincoln Bailgate]
I had found Bunty’s Tea Room open last Saturday, thought I would try today, first time I have ventured inside.
Just my luck, a large group entered as I was about to walk in. A noisy group.
One table empty near the door. Ideal as I try to avoid crowded places during coronavirus pandemic and prefer to sit outside.
No outside seating.
WWII theme, pride of place on the wall, a large black and white photo of a Lancaster bomber flying past Lincoln Cathedral. Various WWII memorabilia dotted around. What was strange, I was the only one who appeared to notice.
My cappuccino was so-so, but what I expected, I was in a tea shop not a coffee shop. Too many mistakes, cup size too large, coffee not freshly ground, not precisely weighed.
I started to feel sick and left my coffee. The reason why, sometimes if I have had too many, fake milk. Not only fake milk, but a cheap low quality oat milk.
Please use real milk not pander to vegans with fake milk. If really must add fake milk to a cappuccino, then maybe try Rebel Kitchen Mylk for Baristas. Or if do not wish for milk, an espresso, or a filter pour over coffee.
Coffee from Seven Districts on sale. A wider range can be found in A Little Bit of Lincolnshire, shop selling local produce further up Steep Hill.
Tea served in a variety of fancy tea pots with bone china cups, as tea should be served.
The tea, a choice of tea, their own blends.
A chocolate sponge cake for later.
I will return another day and try the tea.
Located half way up Steep Hill.
If a visitor to Lincoln please do not take the tourist bus as a complete waste of money and adding to pollution and contributing to Climate Emergency. Walk up Steep Hill or if do not wish to climb Steep Hill, take the Walk and Ride to Lincoln Cathedral, then walk back down Steep Hill.
Avoid Lincoln Cathedral Cafe, an outsourced operation, service poor, disgusting catering supply coffee brewed by clueless on coffee. Always support local businesses where they care about their reputation and money flows back into the local economy.
Contrast Bunty’s Tea Room with the appalling service at Lincoln Cathedral Cafe. But that is the difference between a local family owned business where they care about their reputation and an outsourced operation which does not.
For more on life during WWII, nearby Museum of Lincolnshire Life and International Bomber Command Centre overlooking Lincoln.
First day of mandatory face wearing in enclosed public space.
Miss a bus which turned up several minutes early. Took the opportunity for a walk along the River Witham.
Following bus no opening of door or turning off engine when bus waiting at bus stops. Bus hot, no air, made worse by wearing of face mask.
A hot day, feeling very unwell.
No one I speak to is happy wearing a face mask.
But if I visit indie businesses, in out within a few minutes, restrictions on numbers, doors open, risk minimal.
If we are to stay safe, social distance minimum 2m, avoid enclosed spaces, avoid crowded places, avoid supermarkets and shopping centres, avoid pubs, download and install German track and trace app and share with friends.
It puts the onus on the individual who will be blamed when the inevitable second wave breaks out.
Walking through Lincoln Central Market, dead. Well done dysfunctional Lincoln City Council, kick out a fruit and vegetable stall upon which people rely, destroy a local businesses, and destroy the other traders in the market who have seen business fall off the edge of a cliff. Contrast with Louth, where on a Wednesday a thriving market that brings folk into the town, what a market town should be like. But dysfunctional Lincoln City Council would rather bring in soulless chains and destroy local businesses.
As always, excellent haddock and chips at Elite on the Bail.
The Lion and Snake quiet but soon starts to kick of with rowdy drunks.
Noise in Castle Hill, horrendous noise from a busker.
Another example of dysfunctional Lincoln City Council. No action.
Same problem in High Street.
I looked in Imperial Teas on my way back down Steep Hill. Excellent bean-to-bar craft chocolate in stock from Original Beans and firetree. But very disappointed to find firetree has additives. Imperial Teas is the only stockist of quality chocolate in Lincoln. Forage and Fill in Lincoln Central Market are looking to stock quality chocolate, but not yet as too warm in the summer to stock chocolate.
Cappuccino at Madame Waffle. Opened a week or so ago. Not open Monday and Tuesday. I sat outside.
Why is it everywhere has the desire to dump a few sheds in a town centre fill with tat and junk food and call it a Christmas Market?
This market was dismal. I walked in a little after three to find no one around, all the sheds bar a couple closed. They had obviously closed before three. The ubiquitous junk food.
What is the point of a market that closes at three then reopens again at five, albeit to then charge £8 entrance fee?
I spoke to a couple of stallholders. To say the last they were thoroughly pissed off. And I do not blame them. Paying a high fee for a pitch for no customers. They will not be returning.
I then found I could not get out the West Gate and had to walk around the Castle to Stokes at The Lawn
This is another example of the appalling mismanagement of Lincoln Castle. Complaints fall on deaf ears.
Held Castle Hill, a dismal Christmas farmers market, a pale shadow of when I last visited the farmers market in the summer of last year or Easter this year.
Sadly it seems to be following the ad hoc farmers market held in the High Street which became smaller and smaller and finally died.
Contrast with Guildford Christmas farmers packed with Christmas shoppers.
I managed to pick up cheese from two different stalls, and raw milk unpasteurised milk from the same stalls.
I regret I did not shop in Redhill Farm shop in Bailgate, when I passed by it was busy, later when I passed by it was closed.
The eleventh Lincoln Steampunk Festival, day one of the four day event held over the August Bank Holiday Weekend.
A very hot day, and due to get hotter over the next few days.
Today possible to walk through the grounds of Lincoln Castle, as can do every day, but next few days, will be charged the same entrance fee as though walking the Castle walls, simply to visit a few stalls. This is not acceptable and something the steampunk organisers need to resolve. Those who have a stall in the Castle grounds pay a lot of money for their stalls and a barrier is then created to deter those wishing to visit their stalls. It also hits local businesses either side of the Castle entrances
Not many steampunks around, but next for days will be very many.
Bailgate, Steep Hill, The Strait, five o’clock nearly every single business, shop, tea room, cafe, closed, many would have closed at four if not earlier. Sheer madness, biggest steampunk festival in the world, brings in thousands of people, people with money in their pockets, and nowhere open to spend that money.
For visitors a few recommendations.
For coffee avoid the chains and their undrinkable coffee. Walking up the High Street
For quality beer forget the pubs, pick up a bottle or two of craft beer.
For gear no better than
Vine’s Bakery opened on Friday at the foot of Steep Hill.
Although they only opened on Friday, and selection currently poor, it was as though Lincoln had never seen a bread shop before, maybe have not, as a steady stream of people passing through the door into the shop.
I thought with them being open on a Sunday, they were open seven days a week, but no, closed Monday and Tuesday.
The location is not good, bottom of Steep Hill. Either have to walk up the High Street and The Strait or down Steep Hill.
Ideal location would have been Bailgate where they wished to open, but were blocked by shortsighted businesses in the Bail.
High minimum order for wholesale, too high. No one is going to take a chance on an unknown entity, unknown quality, unknown quality. There should be no minimum. This gives the opportunity to slowly grow the business.
I wished for a wholemeal loaf. No wholemeal. I settled for a seeded brown. OK but not great.
I have also tried a white loaf. It was not good.
Serving coffee is not a good idea. Who wants a bad coffee when there is excellent coffee to be had from Coffee Aroma and Madame Waffle? Focus on bread and cakes. Begs the question planning consent for a cafe?
Ludicrous reporting by hack on the local rag, they had a tour of the bread shop. Tour? A counter and shelves with bread.
The crystal merchant knew all there was to know about crystal, from where to buy, the quality, at what price to sell.
He used to be busy, but times had changed, few people climbed the hill, the crystal on display was collecting dust, but after 30 years it was too late to change, crystal was all he knew.
One day, just as he was about to shut up shop to go for his lunch, he saw a boy looking at his display. He had sufficient experience to appraise the boy to know he had no money and was not going to buy anything. He nevertheless delayed closing his shop until the boy walked on.
The boy walked in, offered to clean the dusty crystal on display if the merchant bought his lunch.
The merchant agreed, as the boy was cleaning the crystal two customers walked in.
Over lunch, the merchant told the boy he had no need to clean the crystal, he would have taken him for lunch, it was an obligation in the Koran.
The merchant seeing that he has already sold crystal that day, saw the arrival of the boy as a good omen and asked the boy if he wished to work for him.
The boy agreed, he would work for the day as he wished to raise enough money to travel to the Pyramids in Egypt.
The boy was crestfallen to learn the Pyramids were far away and he would have to work for at least a year to raise the money to travel that far.
He abandoned his dream.
He would work long enough to buy a ticket back home and buy sheep, he was a shepherd and sheep was all he knew.
The boy cleaned the stock, was good with the customers, and businesses once again picked up.
Two months on, the boy asked could he build a cabinet at the bottom of the hill to display the crystal, as this would tempt visitors to climb the hill to the shop.
The merchant was reluctant, business was picking up, the crystal would get broken, and anyway he did not like change.
But he saw the boy was correct and agreed.
One day the boy overheard from those who climbed the hill how tired and thirsty they were and would it not be a nice idea a drink of tea.
The boy suggested to the merchant they should serve tea in crystal.
The merchant was reluctant, more change, and what did he know about tea, but he agreed.
Business again picked up, word got around, tea was being served in crystal. Many of the men said how their wives would love to serve tea in crystal and bought crystal as a gift for their wives.
In less than a year, the boy bid farewell to the crystal merchant, he had saved enough money to buy a ticket, buy 120 sheep, knew about crystal, could speak Arabic, obtain an import licence for Spain.
The crystal merchant reminded him of his dream, that a caravan was about to depart, that he should follow his dream, that was his destiny.
Steep Hill follows the route of an old Roman Road, it used to be lined with shops, many people walking up the hill to the Castle and Cathedral, stopping part way en route to visit one of the many tea shops.
Now there are few visitors, a bus carries visitors to the top of the hill, many shops have closed, when there are holidays the tea and coffee shops are closed, we too deserve a break they say, then reopen when few visitors are around and bemoan their lack of customers.
There are few businesses of quality, little to draw people back.
At the top of the hill there used to be a tea shop, it closed, premises gutted. Now a cheese shop and coffee shop, the cheese shop selling plastic-wrapped adulterated fake cheddar cheese, the coffee shop serving undrinkable coffee.
The story of the crystal merchant and the boy is taken from The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. The boy is the shepherd boy Santiago who follows his dreams.
The illustration by Jesús Cisneros from the illustrated Folio Society edition of The Alchemist.
Steep Hill is the tale of a real street in terminal decline.
Keithpp's Blog 