By now most of you will be aware of the tragedy that occurred at the end of April. The magnificent presence at our piano thoughtlessly cashed his chips in early at the mindlessly insufficient age of 41. Andy Leake was the very embodiment of the spirit to which we aspire in this business - immensely well-meaning, hugely good-natured, given to excess a little too often, passionate about his duties and music, kind beyond reason and cost, full of good-hearted mischief - in short, the loudest member of this ever-so-slightly dysfunctional catering “family”... he was truly “one of us”.
Andy’s passion for The Walls Sunday lunchtimes and his justly famous Showcases, will be remembered for a very long-time and whilst I have been given to muttering some wildly disparaging remarks when the great big hairy chap stood up to announce for the umpteenth time “the grand tradition of singing happy birthday”, my God I’d gladly promise not to again, if it would reverse things.
Andy had a unique ability to truly relate to people of every age, background and ability, a gift made even rarer because he was really interested in them. He didn’t listen out of politeness or good manners, he cared. His mad sense of the ridiculous has enthralled many children - they all loved him.
Few people on this planet have made me incandescent with rage; Andy did on several occasions, but it was impossible to be angry with him for long. His absurd amount of charm and years of practice at talking himself out of innumerable deep holes meant you just couldn’t stay cross with him.
It is all too raw to be thinking about how we move on but there is a comfort in the certainty that you cannot replace the irreplaceable. Our thoughts are with his immediate family and the pain of this cruel twist.
It is our wish to produce a tangible monument to Andy’s undoubted eccentricity by producing in the first instance, a website of Andy anecdotes, of which there are thousands. The site will contain all manner of your stories about his escapades; you can help by sending them by any means you choose, to us here at The Walls. It would be great to print it in the future.
The funeral for Andy will be held at The Walls on Tuesday 15th May at 12.30 am.
Out of respect, and because our focus has been entirely on the arrangements for Andy’s funeral, we have postponed the Showcase he had scheduled for the 25th of May until much later in the year - probably early autumn.
There are some excellent ideas in the embryonic stage to create, in Andy’s honour, a music foundation which would do a range of charitable things connected to music. Everyone feels it would be better if the Showcase was structured to be of benefit to this cause once it has been established.
Anyone with an interest in performing, helping or fundraising would be gratefully appreciated and, once the funeral, has taken place we’ll try to co-ordinate things.
ART FOR ART'S SAKE
Next up in our series of artistic escapades is an exhibition I’ve long hankered after by a well known relatively local Renaissance man, the indomitable Peter Kindred.
Peter and his wife Bridget successfully ran the Tyddyn Llan Hotel near Corwen until fairly recently. Such is the depth of Peter’s talent that before this honourable vocation, he was also a hugely acclaimed and regarded television producer – working on such programmes as Fawlty Towers – forever in my heart as farty towels and still my all time favourite series about the catering industry. All this and he can paint!
It’s just not fair!
However, from June 1st for a month, at least, Peter is exhibiting a range of his work with us. June 3rd sees the first of his ‘artist in residence’ sessions at which you are welcome to ask him different questions about the meaning of his work whilst gently haggling for discounts should you decided to buy more than one. I have known Peter in the sort of ‘Kindred spirit’ sort of way –(easy pun- I should have resisted) of hard-bitten catering refugees – enjoying the camaraderie of the dilemmas we wrestle with. He’s a very entertaining chap.
Come and see this exhibition from 1st June onwards.
WHO STOLE HUMPTY’S BIRO??!
Just in case some of you might - understandably - have been thinking that the WSJ had been put out to pasture or that we’d simply decided not send you any more letters, finally we’ve found the time to bully Humpty into writing the first 2007 edition. Suffice to say, if we were running a newspaper and not a restaurant, the chances of us remaining in business would be slim!!
There is also some documentary evidence in the form of rare and almost collectors’ item calibre copies of a WSJ that made it into print but not into the post box which bears testament to how shambolic this particular division of The Walls has become. However, the appointment of Mrs. Humpty as Editor-in-chief, as well as her previous role as proof reader, will mean that in future you should receive copies of the WSJ before the events in them have taken place - how novel will that be!
So apart from not writing the newsletter what have we been up to....?
FOOD NEWS
The unseasonably warm weather has heaped pressure upon us to get our fingers out of our cannelloni and bring in the 2007 summer lunch menu featuring salads (and all manner of less calorific offerings) to help you make that all important summer bikini shape in time for the real heat later on.
We have now launched our next seasonal à la carte menu. We make no apology for expanding our self-confessed embracing of rampant plagiarism and Simon and I have been pouring over every inch of Nigella Lawson while Kate and Rachael have been giving Jamie Oliver and the two hairy bikers a similar going over. I did the two fat ladies last time!
So, armed with too many ideas, we are pleased to bring you our latest selection. We’ve worked very closely with our long suffering suppliers to bring you simple, sophisticated dishes with real seasonal integrity. We hope you enjoy it.
While we are loosely on the subject of global warming, I’d like to apologise for the very ugly energy saving bulbs adorning our candelabra light fittings. I personally wouldn’t mind if Llanymynech was at the seaside, but I’m prepared to accept that, on balance, it probably wouldn’t be good for the rest of the world. We are trying to do our bit, along with recycling all paper/cardboard or glass.
SUMMER CARVERY
Traditional roast meat Sunday lunch is not what everyone feels like eating when the sun is splitting the stones and so, as last year except earlier, we have started our poached fish and salad table, and lightened up the vegetables as an addition to our spectacular carvery.
OSWESTRY FOOD FESTIVAL
FRIDAY 13TH, SATURDAY 14TH JULY
We are thrilled to be involved with this fantastic new venture. There are a range of exciting events, promotions and your best bet is to keep your eyes peeled for details in the press.
SHOW STOPPERS
Flushed with success from our triumph at last year’s Oswestry show….. we are going agri show mad this year and setting up a mini Walls at the Shropshire and West Midlands Show for the two days 23rd and 24th of June, as well as at Oswestry Show on August 4th.
I’ve just been reminded to say that we are also sponsoring a fence at the Llanymynech Horse Trials so if we smell a bit farm-yardy, you’ll know why. Please come and see us at any or all...
BECK SIAN
Friday 15th June
Beck Sian’s music and singing style has been influenced by her cousin Kate Bush (famous for such hits as Wuthering Heights, Babooshka and Running Up That Hill).
Beck tends to lean more towards contemporary interpretations of Celtic and gothic styles of music. She is Australian born but is part Irish/English and part Welsh – quite a fiery Celtic mixture! You can tell by the quotes below that this is a show not to be missed:
‘Bucket loads of charisma and a fabulous, enchanting delivery’ Steve Harley, Cockney Rebel ‘She is fabulous’ Genevieve Tudor, Sunday Folk, BBC Radio 'Gorgeous female vocals which are shivers-down-the-spine-good!’ Beat Newspaper, Australia
MENU
Chicken Breast
With lemon, thyme and mushrooms
Salmon Fillet
on a bed of spinach with mild coconut curry sauce
Risotto Cakes
With field mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes and feta
Served with seasonal vegetables and potatoes
***************
Lemon Cheesecake
Brandy Snap Basket
Vanilla ice cream and butterscotch sauce
Cheese and biscuits
NEW OPENING TIMES
Oh! the plans of mice and men! We thought that by closing for a couple of lunchtimes we would free up a load of really useful down time, to aid with battery recharging, remembering our children’s names, hobbies and appointments and time to put our six changes of clothes a day back in the wardrobe!
Not so! Invariably, Monday and Tuesday see us in the building doing something and then later in the week, not taking any time off because we’d already supposedly to be off on Monday and Tuesday. But you don’t want to know about this, you just want lunch when you want lunch etc. So, in the biggest and swiftest turnaround in our records, we are, from the 16th May onwards OPEN for lunch and dinner EVERY DAY and we’re even going to open on Sunday evenings.
To allow this to happen we have strengthened our team substantially by the introduction of Bobby and Alina, a delightful couple from Adrian’s home country Romania.
So having told you that we’ve turned into the restaurant equivalent of “Open All Hours”, we are now announcing that we are shut for the whole day for our Christmas Party on Monday 18th June…….. we are all going to the beach! Bizarre or what!
NEW OPENING TIMES
DRINK AND SUMMER TEA MENU
By now most of you may have had the pleasure of meeting our own self-proclaimed Borat look-alike, aka Adrian, doing some dangerous things behind the bar. Adrian hails from Romania not Kazakhstan but he insists that Borat was filmed in Romania and that the film features many of his close relatives.
Adrian has a real passion for his vocation and he’s quite good at mixing cocktails. Apart from this talent he has also single-handedly bullied me into buying him a plethora of industrial gadgets designed to make fruit palatable! No wonder they were so expensive.
So, armed with these powerful tools and his usual obscene amount of enthusiasm (he calls it passion and vision) he has dreamt up a menu of extreme health drinks that would easily grace a Betty Ford clinic. He keeps following me around with dangerous looking glasses of gaily-coloured fragrant froth with sinister black straws poking out of them. I’m sure that eventually it will dawn on him that this old dinosaur thought (and hoped) that cocktails of all kinds had died out at the end of the roaring twenties with Jeeves and Wooster.
To coincide with this feverish destruction of perfectly good fruit, Richie Woods, our newly married “Queen of Puddings”, has revamped our tea menu so now we are able to offer Frappes, scones, cakes, smoothies and all sorts. If the introduction of all this summer stuff isn’t enough on its own to reverse global warming and herald the imminent start of the next ice age, I’ll eat a smoothie!
A la Carte Menu Summer 2007
(vegetarian dishes also available)
Foundation Course
Happiness Soup ~ £5.00
Naff name but a really mood enhancing soup of courgettes, rice, lemon, turmeric
Black And Blue Beef ~ £9.50
Seared and spiced beef fillet, thinly sliced with garlic, sesame and soy sauce
Giant Peeled King Prawns ~ £10.25
Pan-fried in garlic and herb butter. These monsters are fantastic
Boozy Melon ~ £6.75
With Chambord liqueur and sorbet or air dried Cheshire ham
Red Wine Baked Figs ~ £8.50
With air dried ham and buffalo mozzarella, drizzled with red wine syrup
Toasted Goats Cheese Salad ~ £6.50
With a vine tomato and red onion basil salad and a pesto bruschetta
Crab Cakes with Coriander and parsley ~ £6.75
Fresh crab meat with a little chilli lemon and herbs, pan fried and served with sweet chilli dipping sauce and soy dressing
Smoked Fish Terrine ~ £7.75
Smoked mackerel mousse with smoked trout mousse wrapped in smoked salmon, chives and parsley
Main Event
Pork Schnitzel ~ £14.50
With lemon, garlic butter
Twice Roast Crispy Duck ~ £17.00
With passion fruit and orange sauce
Fillet of Salmon en Croute ~ £16.75
Baked in fine puff pastry and herb sauce
Monkfish fillet ~ £18.00
wW
Breast of Guinea Fowl ~ £13.75
With prunes soaked in armagnac, cider and cream
Pan-Seared Scallops ~ £17.00
With garlic, a little chilli, parsley and lemon
Cracked Black Pepper Tuna Steak ~ £16.00
On a bed of ratatouille
Lamb steak ~ £16.00
Marinated in olive oil ,rosemary and garlic with red onion marmalade
Sirloin ~ £16.50 Fillet ~ £19.50
Steaks served with your choice of brandy and peppercorn sauce OR field mushroom and red wine sauce OR tarragon mustard butter
Just in case some of you might - understandably - have been thinking that the WSJ had been put out to pasture or that we’d simply decided not send you any more letters, finally we’ve found the time to bully Humpty into writing the first 2007 edition. Suffice to say, if we were running a newspaper and not a restaurant, the chances of us remaining in business would be slim!!
Beck Sian’s music and singing style has been influenced by her cousin Kate Bush (famous for such hits as Wuthering Heights, Babooshka and Running Up That Hill). 
