The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
Northern Wales
We left Somerset this morning for a five-hour drive to Wales. Normally I don't volunteer for travel legs much longer than
aroung two hours, but we had to juggle the schedule a bit when I was offered a speaking engagement in Louisville for
September 23rd. So we cut out a planned stop in the Cotswolds, added a day in Somerset and Wales and pushed on through so
Margene could get settled before I had to shuttle back to the US.
The last task prior to rolling north into the rain and fog was a stop at the Chalice Well to fill a couple of bottles with
that magic water. Anything that makes Margene's neck feel better is a good thing, whether it's all psychological or not!
Once we got to the main road, it was all 70mph freeway all the way to Wales -- boring, expedient, and definitely easier to
remember which side of the road to drive on! In France or Italy there would have been fairly healthy tolls on these main auto
routes so we caught a break in that department.
My little Garmin World Traveler GPS has been remarkably accurate in directing us to where we need to be (and notifying me of
all the speed control cameras before we get to them!) I find it interesting that it can do all this working only from the
postal code of the destination. In the UK it appears that particular alpha-numeric combination targets a location with
amazing specificity.
I like that we don't need a huge map spread out across the front seat of the car to navigate like we did in the old days, but
the map view does give a better perspective of where we are in relation to other towns and attractions. The GPS is more like
tunnel vision but far easier when it comes to navigating, particularly through cities where street signs are often obscure or
totally absent.
Margene's home for the next four nights (and mine for two!) is called Strawberry Mill cottage in the town of Colwyn Bay, North Wales. We are high on a hill behind the town with a view of the ocean ... and the second largest wind farm in the world eight miles out in the water. When it is fully operational, it will supply power to a third of the house in Wales! That's pretty impressive!
I have a cab arriving at 6:30am to take me to the train to Manchester and my flight back to the
US, so we settled in to the house and hit the local pub. There's not much of a commercial nature in this residential part of
town but I was impressed with the feel of the Pen-Y-Bryn pub. The service is quite good, the menu interesting and the prices
very reasonable.
Apparently it is owned (or at least managed) by a company who takes over well-located but failed or mismanaged pubs, updates
the interiors, installs new menus and operating systems and generally runs them in a professional manner for a grateful local
market. I'm thinking an idea like that could work in many parts of the US if someone either had the financial backing to
invest in the physical changes or structured a
Restaurant Management Agreement where the property owner would make the investment in FF&E. I'll have to reflect on that
a bit. If you find the idea as intriguing as I do, call me after October 6th and let's strategize.
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