The Front Room, Market Jew St, Penzance

Rather a lot of time has been spent in cafes this week. We are blessed with very many in Penzance, but however many there are, they always seem to attract a crowd. Take the Front Room, on Market Jew St, Penzance for example, It's only been open five minutes but looks like it's already a popular favourite. A month actually, but today was the first time I'd been in. There were a few familiar faces in there, one of them being Sara MacDonald, whose book 'The hour before dawn' has been one of my favourite reads this year, and I urge everybody to read it.
I was meeting Lucy Cooper, who is also on The Penzance Litfest organising team. Partly to talk Litfest, partly just to catch up. We did the Professional Writing MA together at Falmouth. Lucy is a Penwith girl and the café is the work of her friend Kate Jamieson, so it was good to go in and see how it was doing.
First impression is that it's a TARDIS of a café. It goes back a long way, and has an upstairs, so plenty of room for gatherings. In fact the upstairs room would be ideal for small meetings and groups.
We were just meeting for coffee, but what with one thing and another, it turned out to be brunch time before we sat down, and the brunch menu offered Eggs Benedict, which is kind of irresistible, though often disappointing. Not this time though. The hollandaise sauce was just right, a good balance of acidity and richness and the perfect amount  - not mean, and not selfish. It left room for the delicious ham and sunshine-yellow yolked eggs to shine through too.


I should be the size of a house. I'm not. I just drink tea in the evenings while working on the second Winciette Jenkins novel, (The Dangerous Lies of Blue-Eyed Boys) and chew on a lettuce leaf or a carrot stick. It's ALL about balance.
The Front Room, Market Jew St, Penzance https://www.facebook.com/thefrontroom.penzance

Evie Rose'sVintage Tea Room, Goldsithney. A hidden gem

Tucked away amongst the Nanturras Workshops, is Evie Rose's Vintage Tea Rooms. Evie Rose herself was taken out, not altogether willingly, as I arrived. Perhaps because she didn't want to be separated from the array of fantastic looking cakes cooked up by her grandmother and on display behind the counter.


A few months ago, I decided to try every café between Penzance and Penzance via Land's End. The second part of that was supposed to be a blog post, which is the bit that doesn't always happen.


Strictly speaking, Goldsithney is out of the catchment area, but anyone who knows the joys of driving down Cornish country lanes will tell you that you often end up somewhere back where you started and nowhere near where you were aiming for, so I could have gone via Goldsithney, and did.


Evie Rose's Vintage Tea Rooms has a display of delightful Vintage/retro clothes including Wedding dresses; glass and crockery; bits & bobs (always my favourite) and the furniture is all in Vintage style. It's quite small, and I suspect once people discover it, booking will become advisable. There were five of us. Three of us had salads. Too few places, in my opinion, have good salads on the menu, and these are really good salads. I had a Goats Cheese and Red Onion quiche, which was home-made, delicious and a very generous helping. The salad accompaniment was imaginative and varied - good green leaves, spicy cous cous, a little pop of raspberry, and delicious dressing. Two of the others had a Roasted Pepper and Tomato soup which they said was very good, thick with vegetables and flavour.
We had cake after too - pure gluttony, but hard to resist. A Chocolate Fudge cake with bits of fudge on the top; a Victoria Sandwich and a Blackberry & Apple pie were sampled and all deemed very good indeed.
Go find it. It's off the Goldsithney Road. You won't be disappointed.
Evie Rose's Vintage Tea Rooms, Nanturras Workshops, Goldsithney TR20 9HE
t: 07930 655467  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Evie-Roses-vintage-tea-rooms/1470281889861094