Hitting the G-Spot
May. 2nd, 2007 09:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustA few weeks ago, there was a delivery of flyers around the city, inviting us to (and the spelling and capitalisation are accurate) "Celebrate the Launch of Durham's Boldest Restaurant with the most audatious competition prize". A new restaurant in town is always interesting, and this one was very close to home: how had they got this far without the neighbours noticing? The advertising style made it look like yet another student bar, and the name - Gourmet Spot, abbreviated to G Spot - wasn't promising, but it described itself as a restaurant, not a bar, certainly was not licensed as a bar, and dropped seriously foodie terms like molecular gastronomy.
So I headed over to their website to have a look, and since there was a competition (prize: invitation to the launch party, free club membership, your name on our advertising banner flying over the city) typed in my name, thinking that after all, I wasn't likely to win, and if I did I could always say "no, thanks" to the advertising bit. And clicked submit, and read the message - thanks for entering, watch the sky on April 28th to see if you've won and panicked. Dashed off an e-mail, saying, no, please, don't do this, I'd love to know more about the restaurant but I really don't approve of this kind of advertising, and within half an hour received a phone call from the public relations man, who was very understanding, assured me that this was just playing for effect, of course they wouldn't really put anyone's name on a banner without confirming it was OK, just being a little cheeky, perhaps I'd noticed their name, G Spot, that was a little cheeky too, and they really were a serious restaurant...
With hindsight, perhaps that was the point at which I should have started to wonder how many entries they'd had.
So on Saturday afternoon comes the phone call: Can you hear that plane flying overhead? Go out and have a look, it's towing your name...
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durham_rambler had a previous engagement on Monday evening, but fortunately David was here to escort me to the launch party. We had a pleasant time, I think, drank champagne and chatted, mainly to each other, which was fine, and to the wine supplier, which was interesting, and to the restaurant's owners. They seemed genuinely swept up by enthusiasm: this was not the restaurant they had envisaged, Raj Naik told me, but chef Sean Wilkinson was very persuasive, and his passion for food had convinced them. At the same time, they were clearly people with business sense and experience, which is just as well, because Durham is not an easy place to run a restaurant, and their restaurant, with its tiny, intimate dining room and its extreme, labour intensive menu, is not the easy option.
But the tiny tasters we sampled at the party - a spoonful of beetroot caviar, for example, with a chaser of a shot glass full of carrot and parsley froth - for example, were fun. I'm not - unlike some of my friends - hankering to dine at The Fat Duck, but I'd certainly (prices permitting; and if the menu is as reasonably priced as the wine list, they will) stroll up the hill to the Gourmet Spot.
So I headed over to their website to have a look, and since there was a competition (prize: invitation to the launch party, free club membership, your name on our advertising banner flying over the city) typed in my name, thinking that after all, I wasn't likely to win, and if I did I could always say "no, thanks" to the advertising bit. And clicked submit, and read the message - thanks for entering, watch the sky on April 28th to see if you've won and panicked. Dashed off an e-mail, saying, no, please, don't do this, I'd love to know more about the restaurant but I really don't approve of this kind of advertising, and within half an hour received a phone call from the public relations man, who was very understanding, assured me that this was just playing for effect, of course they wouldn't really put anyone's name on a banner without confirming it was OK, just being a little cheeky, perhaps I'd noticed their name, G Spot, that was a little cheeky too, and they really were a serious restaurant...
With hindsight, perhaps that was the point at which I should have started to wonder how many entries they'd had.
So on Saturday afternoon comes the phone call: Can you hear that plane flying overhead? Go out and have a look, it's towing your name...
durham_rambler had a previous engagement on Monday evening, but fortunately David was here to escort me to the launch party. We had a pleasant time, I think, drank champagne and chatted, mainly to each other, which was fine, and to the wine supplier, which was interesting, and to the restaurant's owners. They seemed genuinely swept up by enthusiasm: this was not the restaurant they had envisaged, Raj Naik told me, but chef Sean Wilkinson was very persuasive, and his passion for food had convinced them. At the same time, they were clearly people with business sense and experience, which is just as well, because Durham is not an easy place to run a restaurant, and their restaurant, with its tiny, intimate dining room and its extreme, labour intensive menu, is not the easy option.But the tiny tasters we sampled at the party - a spoonful of beetroot caviar, for example, with a chaser of a shot glass full of carrot and parsley froth - for example, were fun. I'm not - unlike some of my friends - hankering to dine at The Fat Duck, but I'd certainly (prices permitting; and if the menu is as reasonably priced as the wine list, they will) stroll up the hill to the Gourmet Spot.
