Care needs to be taken with the bacon

I imagine how, had local government existed in the 1860s, it would have dealt with a planning application from Mr and Mrs J Bowes for their pet project.

Would it fall foul of the local development framework?

Would it be considered an inappropriate development in open countryside? Would it be considered out-of-scale with its surroundings.

Would highways object on grounds of the increase in the number of horse and carts on the road? Would the Environment Agency raise drainage issues? You bet they would. And that’s not taking into account the honorable alderman who condemned the plan as a grievous, dastardly French plot to despoil the beautiful English landscaped with a grossly fanciful confection.

But of course in 1869 if you owned the land and had the wherewithal you could build exactly what you wanted and that’s what John and Josephine Bowes did, with the result being the glorious edifice we have today.

And there’s all those goodies inside. The Canalettos, works by El Greco and Goya, the Silver Swan etc.

All of them absolutely magnificent but on a recent Saturday morning our hearts were not set on a feast for the eyes, we just wanted breakfast.

Cafe Bowes was created as part of the redevelopment of the museum which started in 2005. On the ground floor, it is, as one would expect, a graceful room tastefully decorated with arty motifs on the walls and surprisingly comfortable tables and chairs, many of them with lovely views over the manicured grounds and Teesdale beyond.

Breakfast is served 10am to 11am, coffees, teas and snacks through the day until 4.30pm and more substantial lunch dishes between noon and 2.30pm.

The breakfast options are simple: a breakfast roll with sausage, egg and bacon (£3.50); smoked salmon and scrambled egg on toast (£7); and the full English (£6). We opted for the latter two and a pot of tea for two.

While briefly waiting for our meal, we enjoyed observing the arrival of a wedding party in the museum courtyard (yes, they do weddings at the Bowes these days), Sylvia providing a stream of fashion comment (“ooh, too short”, “bad handbag”, “colour clash”, she’ll regret putting those shoes on” etc).

She can be picky, as you’ll see later But back to the food. Cafe Bowes makes much of its use of local produce. The bacon is black treacle cured from McFarlane’s butchers in Barnard Castle, the black pudding is supplied by Joe Simpson’s of Cockfield and the tea is from Mad Hatter at Richmond.

There was plenty of evidence of other good things.

The salmon with my freerange scrambled egg was Bleikers, smoked in North Yorkshire, and the bread used for the toast was freshly- baked and thickly cut.

The new-look cafe

So far, so good. Certainly I could find nothing to fault with my salmon – oaked smoked and nicely salty – and the egg was still soft if not runny. It was a generous serving too.

Sylvia’s full English was the proverbial curate’s egg (and bacon, black pudding and tomato, but no Cumberland sausage – it wasn’t ready we were told). The materials were great but what was needed was a little more care in the cooking. Sylvia is picky (she would describe it as high standards) about the way a fried egg is cooked but I could only agree that the bacon had been murdered.

Many like their bacon crisp but these rashers (extra because the sausage was not available) had been cooked to the point where the fat was burnt black and the fork would barely penetrate.

The texture of shoe leather came to mind.

I thought the egg was passable but not Sylvia.

Because it had been cooked too quickly, the edge of the white was turning brown while the yolk was barely cooked. Tut, tut, she said.

The fried tomato was beautifully sweet, the toast fine and the tea good and strong.

Service was perfectly OK. It could have been a brilliant breakfast for just £18 if just a little more care had been taken in the kitchen.

Ratings:

Food Quality: 7/10

Service: 8/10

Surroundings: 9/10

Value: 8/10