For
me, the joys of December cannot truly begin until my annual trip to
Bath's popular Christmas Market* is under-way; a shoe-in to the
festivities whereby over 140 traditional wooden chalets – selling
the likes of locally-sourced edibles, decorations and gifts - adorn
the cobbles near to the city's iconic Abbey. On this particular
visit, the girls and I decided that to kick-start the proceedings, a
spot of brunch was in order and fortuitously stumbling upon The
Bertinet Bakery Shop and Café at the height of our hungriness, we
ascended from the hustle and bustle (not to mention, the wonderful
sights and smells) of the bakery to the intimately-arranged dining
area on the first floor...
Date
and Time: Sunday 2nd December 2012, 11:30
Name
of Establishment: The Bertinet
Bakery Shop and Café*
Location:
6
New Bond Street Place (on the corner of Upper Borough Walls), Bath
Reason
for Visit: A little respite
from the cold and preparatory replenishment for the afternoon ahead..
After
the success of his cookery school, it's fair to say that the newest
outlet for French chef and baker Richard Bertinet - the
quaint-looking establishment on the corner of Bath's Upper Borough
Walls - is an asset to the city's café culture; offering a
thoughtful assortment of sweet treats and savouries which you can opt
to eat-in or take-away. Overall, this is a calming yet quirky space;
unmistakably underpinned with an air of 'Le
Français'
which is channelled through the likes of a crisp colour scheme and
its minimalistic décor. That said, punctuating the sophisticated
ambiance with distressed wooden furniture, cushions made from Hessian
flour sacks and framed images from Richard's cookery-book; 'Pastry',
just about managed to promote a homely feel which would have been
otherwise lost to the winter whites and cool greys that for me, also
seemed to reflect the service which was at best; a little
stand-offish and at worst; really rather rude. In line with this, one
of my dining companions reported that she had been unapologetically
bumped by a member of staff whilst she stood in line to pay for her
fare – an experience that unsurprisingly tarnished her opinion of
the venue before she had even sampled its wares. Furthermore, there
was a right old kerfuffle in regards to our order which had obviously
been incorrectly noted given that even our drinks took an age to make an
appearance and were not quite right when they did so...
 |
| Calming yet quirky |
 |
| Help-yourself! |
Though
table service has been eschewed in favour of a pay-at-the-till
arrangement, I rather liked the help-yourself ethos when it came to
toasting the contents of the 'Bertinet Bread Bucket' (£3.25) and
portioning jam into little ramekins for a spot of free-hand
spreading. In fact, this is exactly what I finally decided upon and
although I was disappointed by the sliced, white twosome that skulked
between the crinkled sheets of parchment paper, the sour dough was
fantastic; thickly cut, fresh-tasting and quite frankly, delicious. I
think it would have been preferable to be offered a choice of breads
- especially given the varieties in abundance downstairs and the fact
that, on the large part, white bread is nutritionally useless, (plus
for me personally, pretty hard-going). Friend 'H' ordered the Croque
Monsieur (£5.25) which although looked the part, was ruined somewhat
by the amount of vinaigrette that had been added to the side-salad;
soaking the bottom-half of the sandwich which resulted in an
unpleasant acidic sogginess. She suggested that the overall ensemble
would have fared rather better had the salad-dressing been included
in the self-serve remit as the ingredients were essentially of a good
quality, generously portioned and attractively plated. In light of
this, we harboured some pretty serious food envy having noticed the
couple on the table next to ours tucking into a rather spectacular
cheese board (£7.50), especially upon discovering that this featured
a number of my favourite cheeses: namely, Trethowan's Gorwydd
Caerphilly and Homewood's Old Demdike.
 |
| Croque Monsieur |
 |
| Bucket of Bertinet Bread |
When
it came to the all-important matter of cake and confectionery
however, it was quite a different story; the 'cloud meringue' (served
with a choice of decadent toppings) or salted butter caramel tartine
proving particularly appealing. Besides this, there is a tempting
array of scones, croissants and pastries on offer which can also be
purchased 'to-go'; something which only the strong-willed can resist
upon exiting the shop!
To
wash down our fare, we found ourselves split between tea-drinkers and
coffee addicts...and, firmly within the latter camp, I sipped at my
authentically continental 'Cappuccino' which had been well-executed
and richly-roasted – just lovely! Tea was served in sizeable pots
alongside dainty, floral tea-cups made of the finest bone china yet
disappointingly brandished with the odd dirty mark which ruined the
appeal somewhat. That said, we liked that milk had been provided in
old-fashioned bottles and later discovered that kiddies (or the young
at heart) can opt for flavoured milk (caramel, chocolate, raspberry,
strawberry or vanilla) which comes complete with an old-fashioned
paper straw. It was also lovely to find that the Bertinet Bakery
Café offer a 'breakfast bowl'; a typically French concept that I
happen to be rather partial to having been introduced to it in
Toulouse as a teenager. Here, this basically constitutes a choice
between coffee or hot chocolate which is served in...yep, you guessed
it...a soup bowl which is destined for some serious dunkage – a
croissant proving (for me at least) the perfect accompaniment to this
novel way of enjoying what is commonly considered the most important
meal of the day!
 |
| Time for Tea! |
In
conclusion, there was definitely a hit and miss feel to The Bertinet
Bakery Café; although many aspects of the experience looked the
part, when it came to the conflict between style and substance, the
latter seemed to fall a little short. Collectively, we felt that
although the attention to detail made for an aesthetically pleasing
visit, a little care needed to be applied to the delivery of the fare
and most importantly, the standard of the customer service which was
arguably, the most prominently French aspect of the venue overall!
Criticisms aside, it's fair to say that if you're after affordable
edibles and/or something to satisfy your sweet tooth; this is,
without doubt, the place for you – though at present the shop fares
rather better than the café, with a few tweaks here and there, I'm
sure it could improve considerably; you might say, allowing its
clientèle to have their cake and eat it...!
And
now for the second opinion...
Friend
'H' gave The Bertinet bakery Café a rating of 6/10 and chose,
'pretty questionable service' as her three-word summary!
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