Lunch at Sam’s Kitchen in Bath
The drive to Swansea, where my son’s a student, is long and winding and laboriously slow, largely because the first part of the journey involves driving uphill and down dale at a snail’s pace through the Dorset countryside.
But to make the journey more bearable I’ve taken to stopping halfway in the gorgeous honey-stoned city of Bath, with its elegant Georgian crescents, magnificent abbey and chic shops.
If I’ve got time I stroll up Walcot Street for lunch in my favourite café – Sam’s Kitchen, at number sixty-one.
A relaxed deli, with mismatched chairs and tables, a flagstone floor, French windows opening on to the street and friendly staff, Sam’s Kitchen is exactly my sort of place. Run by Sam Wylde and Steve Wesley (whose impressive CVs include stints at Babington House, The Archangel in Frome and The Chapel in Bruton), it serves the kind of food I like to eat. The coffee’s top notch too so I’ll definitely drop in for breakfast some time.
During a speedy stop this week I chose a delicious Cheddar tart with salads that were easily as good as Ottolenghi’s, followed by a slice of heavenly almond, cranberry and polenta cake (I couldn’t resist). My son went for the pulled pork and coffee cake and declared that it was the best lunch he’d eaten in ages.
The other customers were lovely too. The place was rammed at two pm but a woman sitting at a table on the pavement budged up and said we were welcome to join her. Within a few seconds we were chatting about everything from student digs in Swansea to her son’s penchant for hang gliding. My husband’s just taken up the sport again after a twenty-five year gap (mad, I know) so we swapped ideas about the best places to hover above the English landscape (her son likes the Isle of Wight, my husband reckons Ringstead Bay in Dorset is perfect) and for half an hour or so it felt like we’d known each other all our lives.