Tag Archives: The Dome

The Dome

5th July 2023 billpaterson1@me.com 11 Comments

This post from the Dome in Edinburgh may be shocking for many readers! We apologise in advance if that is the case. Everyone knows what afternoon tea is … goodness, we’ve reviewed quite a few on this blog.

Internal view of the Dome — It used to be the Royal Bank of Scotland, famous for its glass dome

In 1840 the 7th Duchess of Bedford got into the habit of having tea, sandwiches and cake in the afternoon to tide her over to the evening meal which wasn’t served until 8pm. She started to invite friends who would change into long gowns and hats to take tea in the drawing room at Woburn Abbey. It became a social occasion for polite discourse and tea sipped from fine china with one’s little finger delicately raised! Henry James said “There are few hours more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea“. All well and good, however, this post is not about ‘afternoon tea’, it’s about ‘morning tea’ here at the Dome in Edinburgh. “Sacré bleu, what sort of abomination is that?” we hear you cry!

How it all began

Back in 2016 we had afternoon tea upstairs in the Georgian Tea Room … and very nice it was! Recently, however, we became aware that, against all the laws of nature, they were now offering morning tea. Has to be the work of the Devil. We felt that it would have to be checked out on our reader’s behalf so in the spirit of Marco Polo and Ernest Shackleton we set out to investigate. Turns out that morning tea is served downstairs in the Club Room.

Caledonian Heritable Limited own the Dome along with more than 300 other pubs and restaurants. By a happy coincidence they also own the Woodside, our local and our weekly haunt at 5pm every Friday. If you think the Dome is a bit fancy you should see the Woodside! No morning tea or even afternoon tea but it does have a range of potato crisps.

So here we are in the Club Room drinking champagne and it’s not even midday! Told you it was the Devil’s work. Surely you don’t get lots cakes with a morning tea? No, what you get is two mini breakfast rolls with link sausage and bacon. There’s also lemon and blueberry muffins and an oatmeal thingy with berries. Oh, and scones … obviously! We hadn’t had any breakfast so it was all very welcome. The mini breakfast rolls were nicely toasted and the sausage and the bacon cooked to perfection. I asked for some tomato sauce so they brought brown … heyho! The service was typically efficient if a little cavalier about sauce. The oats and berries thingy was also nice though maybe a little on the heavy side.

The scones were unusually uniform in shape but with a lovely sprinkling of crystallised sugar on top. Crisp on the outside and soft in the middle, it couldn’t be anything else but a topscone.

The Club Room at the Dome — Part of the Club Room

Verdict

As if things weren’t confusing enough they serve morning tea until 2pm … so it’s perfectly possible to have morning tea in the afternoon … but not, we hasten to add, the other way round. So what’s with this morning tea thing? Is it really such an abomination? Well, we should probably apologise to the Dome for casting aspersions. It was all rather nice and we would recommend it to those of an adventurous disposition who are willing to get out of bed a little earlier.

George Street, Edinburgh — George Street from the Dome

Apart from morning tea what other miracles are there today? Wimbledon has started heralding the start of that miracle of television abuse by respectable old ladies. My mother had never held a racket in her life, however, during Wimbledon she was transmogrified into a tennis expert who would scream abuse at the tv when her favourite players missed a ‘simple’ shot. King Charles is in Scotland today continuing that age old tradition of plundering Scotland’s Crown Jewells. The miracle is that he is able to do it in broad daylight aided and abetted by the police. Today is also the 75th anniversary of the NHS. Given successive government’s attempts to privatise it, it’s a miracle that it’s still around, albeit in need of some TLC.

This was a lovely day out in Old Reekie and our morning breakfast at the Dome will probably last us the rest of the day … another miracle?

EH2 2PF tel: 0131 624 8624 The Dome

///incomes.noble.dream

Ordinary, Scones

The Rose Café

2nd December 2019 billpaterson1@me.com 1 Comment

We used to live in Edinburgh and were well acquainted with its varied nightlife. It was a surprise, therefore, to discover that there was a theatre on Rose Street. We had never heard of it. Upon investigation it became clear that when we lived here it wasn’t a theatre at all, it was the Charlotte Baptist Chapel. Not somewhere we would have frequented back then or, indeed, at any time. In 2012 the congregation gave it up in favour of a more suitable venue a short distance away. It wasn’t until Danish ballet dancer Peter Schaufuss bought it in 2017 that it became a theatre. It has several auditoriums, a studio, a rehearsal room and a café – the Rose Café.

We were in Edinburgh to see a movie called “Knives Out” at the Cameo Picturehouse. An excellent whodunit that Agatha Christie would have been proud of. Go see, if you get the chance.Since we were in town, however, we thought we should check out the Rose Café as well. It turns out that the basement of the theatre is actually run as a kind of Comedy Club for aspiring comedians. A local production company called Gilded Balloon is in charge of organising things and they promote dance and music events in other parts of the theatre throughout the year.

Black marks

The café is quite big with a variety of seating areas. Since it was quiet when we arrived we chose to luxuriate on some large comfortable sofas tucked away in a corner. We were fortunate though because soon it become very busy indeed. Fruit or plain scones were on offer so, after some excellent lunch, we opted for fruit. Mon dieu! When they arrived they were preloaded and you all know what we think about that sort of nonsense. It does save you all that cutting and spreading business but we still prefer to just do it ourselves. No cream either but apart from these black marks the scones themselves were good … not top but good.

The staff were very helpful and friendly and we enjoyed sitting reading all the promotional material about upcoming events. It was great to make ourselves familiar with a place that, up until today, we had no idea existed. We even booked up for an event next April!

We take our collective hats off to Danish ballet dancers. They seem to be willing to invest vast amounts of their own money in the Scottish arts scene. Indeed Peter Schaufuss has just bought yet another huge venue, St Stephen’s Church. It will become another performance venue in the city similar to this Rose theatre. There can’t be anything more uncertain than running a theatre where you are for ever at the mercy of a fickle public. In the run up to election day on December 12, it seems to be the other way round … the public at the mercy of fickle politicians. When nothing in modern politics can be taken at face value it is almost impossible to predict what might happen with any certainty.

Christmas at the Dome, Edinburgh — Christmas at the Dome in Edinburgh

Incomprehensible

Given that there is little in the way of a credible opposition, there is only one absolute certainty. Scotland will, yet again, end up being governed by a party for which it has never ever voted. Unbelievably, some Scottish people have so little faith in their own country and countrymen, they are willing to vote for far right extremists like the current Conservatives. All to ensure that Scotland maintains it’s status as the only country in the world governed by another, different country. Totally inexplicable … thank goodness for ballet dancers!

EH2 4AZ tel: 0131 226 4000 Rose Theatre Café

///upset.client.popped

ps We have mentioned in the past that our local town, Falkirk, was in danger of losing all its K6 telephone boxes. That was in spite of them all being manufactured right here. A group of ‘the concerned’ (Falkirk Made Friends) has at last managed to persuade the Council to adopt three thus saving them from immediate removal. A small but significant step. We will keep you posted.

Falkirk Made Friends is a small campaigning organisation (non violent) celebrating Falkirk’s rich manufacturing heritage.

Scones, Top

Georgian Tea Room

22nd March 2016 billpaterson1@me.com

No, nothing to do with Mad Max! This is in Edinburgh’s George Street and there is definitely nothing thunderous about it. ‘A warm balmy evening’ might describe it better.

Built in 1847 as the headquarters of the Commercial Bank of Scotland it currently functions as a bar, restaurant and night club. We often come here when we are in town, fancy a pint … and the Café Royal is just a bit too far away. On this occasion however instead of going into the bar area under the magnificent dome we went upstairs to the Georgian Tea Room. A bit of an adventure, since we had never strayed upstairs before. Needless to say the splendour continues. The tea room certainly does not let the rest of the building down in any way .. all chandeliers and ebony.

Afternoon tea

As soon as you walk in you get the feeling that you are not going to be let down either. It was a special day so we were tr

Internal view of the Georgian Tearoom — Georgian Tearoom

eating ourselves to afternoon tea and it seemed that lots of other people were doing the same. A constant turnover of tables but all done in an atmosphere of absolute calm. Of course, champagne had to be taken first. Recently, a correspondent from France could not understand how Hugh’s champagne bar existed when it was not open in the evening. I had to explain that, in Scotland, we drink champagne all day because, just living here, is a constant cause for celebration!

Anyway the bubbles allowed us time to look at the tea menu which contained six different options. Pat wanted her usual breakfast tea and I decided on the Bannockburn .. no idea why? In our last post we were seeking out Scottish tea plantations, however, in spite of the name, the Bannockburn tea estate, which has existed since the 1850s, is situated just a few miles from the centre of Darjeeling. No prizes for guessing where the founders were from. Served in Dudson fine bone china, the blurb said it was fresh yet fruity with citrus and apricot notes; the perfect accompaniment to scones .. and it was! What with the crisp white linen tablecloths and napkins, the silver tea service and the scones being just the right size and melt-in-the-mouth, it was not in the least bit difficult to make a topscone award … hurrah!

Flying pigs

Sitting here in the Dome, cosseted and looked after superbly well, you tend to wonder what the government was thinking about with it’s recent attempt at cutting allowances for the sick and disabled. Little wonder they have decided to do a U-turn. As we write, news is coming in of bombings in Brussels. What is happening in this deeply divided world? Maybe Trump can sort it out .. or was that a pig flying over? You’ll be pleased to know that we did manage to squeeze in a wee visit to the Café Royal on the way home.