Sam Turner’s cafe, Darlington Road, Northallerton (From Darlington and Stockton Times)

Sam Turner’s cafe, Darlington Road, Northallerton

11:52am Friday 18th December 2009

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Fortification required for the Christmas fray.

WITH a Christmas shopping trip to Northallerton on the day’s menu, some formidable sustenance was in order. A good breakfast was required to help us cope with everything that the packed High Street could throw at us.

We could, of course, have gone to Bettys, or Lewis & Cooper, both providers of fine breakfasts, but what was really required was something a bit more substantial, something like Sam Turner’s café, handily placed on Darlington Road on the way in to town.

The other great thing about Sam Turner’s café is the view, not of the surrounding industrial estate, but of the shopfloor, that cornucopia of all things practical for the garden, farm and estate.

While waiting for our full English (£6.20) to arrive, we watched a man select a chain saw and a woman peruse the snow shovels.

While I wondered which long range weather forecast the woman had seen, Sylvia speculated on how many pieces the chain saw man was going cut his dead wife into before popping her in the freezer. She has a vivid imagination, you see.

This idle, wild and not so wild speculation was brought to an end by the arrival of our breakfast, two platefuls groaning with eggs, bacon, sausages, baked beans and mushrooms. A little disappointingly, there was no black pudding, but in truth there wasn’t room on the plate. A pot of tea for two and two large doorsteps of toast each completed the array It was a very good breakfast.

Well-cooked eggs with runny golden yolks, top quality pork sausages, a dry-cure bacon (slightly skizzled at the edges, it has to be said), sauteed mushrooms and decent quality baked beans. The tea was good and strong, the toast still warm and served with a nicely bitter marmalade. A few marks were lost for the tiddly packet butter portions, but otherwise it was excellent.

Service was somewhat agricultural, but efficiently jolly.

The surroundings were cosily comfortable and functional rather than smart and sophisticated, which is what one would expect. Reading material provided for those eating on their own (or when not talking to their partners) included a well thumbed copy of the Darlington &Stockton Times (surprisingly, there really are people who don’t buy their own copy each week).

Having paid our modest bill, we headed for the High Street suitable fortified for the fray.

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