Hello
Just a quickie to say that Massaro’s will be opening on Tuesday 18th November at 10.30am and we are all very excited.
The loyal amongst you will note that it was supposed to be either today or Monday – well did you really think that would be the case with our history!!
There have been a few more hiccups but they are being sorted and I will tell you more later.
Thank you to Random (our stalker) and if you can’t wait until Tuesday pop in for a coffee tomorrow – it’s not as if you have far to come.
Finally look out for a future barista champion if you are passing today as George Massaro will be making an appearance later this afternoon.
Sunday, 16 November 2008
Friday, 14 November 2008
Cheeky On Ice!! (Thanks Daisy)
Hello
OK I have not quite be on the Cambridge on Ice rink but there are 2 big banners with Massaro’s on and my blog address is on there so it nearly counts.
Today has been another feel good day as Andrea and Elaine went off to a local small holding to collect some initial goods ready for the opening and rather than have it ready for them the farm owner decided to take them on his buggy to the various patches to collect their own food. They brought back a little rocket, various Italian winter salad leaves to make their own winter salad mix, a fantastic looking lettuce and various other wonderful foods. They would love to get everything from here but it is only a small place and they actually use all their own produce in their kitchens as they are a wedding venue so can only sell surplus items but it is all very good and you will see various buts from here throughout the year.
Later tonight Andrea and Elaine went off to the launch of Cambridge on Ice as they are an official sponsor of the event. Daisy who works for them was the official photographer for the evening as she has recently graduated with a degree in photography and she is going to have some of her work up in Massaro’s coffee shop which you will be able to buy.
Back at the shop work is still going on to get open as soon as possible and could now be Sunday. Tomorrow the windows are being cleaned so you will all be able to see in. Andrea and Elaine hope to open on Sunday but not everything will be ready such as the lovely food menu but the shelves are almost full and whilst the coffee is not up to the perfect standards they are looking for you will be able to have a coffee as it is still very good.
Unfortunately they have had trouble sourcing the fresh Italian cakes they were hoping to have for the opening but they are still working on it.
Finally thank you to GRM for your comment and at if only we knew who you were we could tell George who is coming up again on Sunday that you think he is fantastic – we thought maybe for one second that you actually were George as the first and third letters could be George Massaro but what’s the R for – who knows – maybe Reece!!
Well whoever you are we look forward to seeing you in the shop
Bye all for now and if I don’t write before then Andrea and Elaine hope to see you on Sunday or maybe Monday!!
OK I have not quite be on the Cambridge on Ice rink but there are 2 big banners with Massaro’s on and my blog address is on there so it nearly counts.
Today has been another feel good day as Andrea and Elaine went off to a local small holding to collect some initial goods ready for the opening and rather than have it ready for them the farm owner decided to take them on his buggy to the various patches to collect their own food. They brought back a little rocket, various Italian winter salad leaves to make their own winter salad mix, a fantastic looking lettuce and various other wonderful foods. They would love to get everything from here but it is only a small place and they actually use all their own produce in their kitchens as they are a wedding venue so can only sell surplus items but it is all very good and you will see various buts from here throughout the year.
Later tonight Andrea and Elaine went off to the launch of Cambridge on Ice as they are an official sponsor of the event. Daisy who works for them was the official photographer for the evening as she has recently graduated with a degree in photography and she is going to have some of her work up in Massaro’s coffee shop which you will be able to buy.
Back at the shop work is still going on to get open as soon as possible and could now be Sunday. Tomorrow the windows are being cleaned so you will all be able to see in. Andrea and Elaine hope to open on Sunday but not everything will be ready such as the lovely food menu but the shelves are almost full and whilst the coffee is not up to the perfect standards they are looking for you will be able to have a coffee as it is still very good.
Unfortunately they have had trouble sourcing the fresh Italian cakes they were hoping to have for the opening but they are still working on it.
Finally thank you to GRM for your comment and at if only we knew who you were we could tell George who is coming up again on Sunday that you think he is fantastic – we thought maybe for one second that you actually were George as the first and third letters could be George Massaro but what’s the R for – who knows – maybe Reece!!
Well whoever you are we look forward to seeing you in the shop
Bye all for now and if I don’t write before then Andrea and Elaine hope to see you on Sunday or maybe Monday!!
Wednesday, 12 November 2008
Gelato Finally Arrives and George Massaro, One for the Future
Hello all
Well, well another exciting day for Andrea and Elaine. Today was the day that the ice cream sorry gelato arrived at Massaro’s. Two lovely ladies rolled up at midday today with their van and out came a truly amazing product and if ever the word artisan was invented this is what it was for – this is gelato in its truest form –basically no cream and just pure quality ingredients hand mixed culminating in a taste sensation – pistachios from Bronte – hazelnuts from Piemonte – British fruit when it is equal to Italian – no expense spared in producing this truly exquisite gelato – and where is it made – Italy you may think – but no it hails from London produced by some wonderful people with a rich and long history in gelato production – as with the coffee Andrea and Elaine have tried many gelatos and many from Italy but this is simply the best they have found and soon you will get to taste for yourself.
Your initial choice whether it be a single scoop or 1 litre to take home for a dinner party will be from Cioccalato, Caffe, Cookies, Nocciola or Vaniglia and if you prefer sorbetti then choose from Limone and Fragole ( Lemon or Strawberry ). I’ll let you into a little secret – hiding in the freezer counter is a pistachio gelato so to see it sooner one of the ones above will have to be sold for it to come out so get buying because the pistachio one is, if possible, even better than the rest but a heated discussion between Elaine and Andrea resulted in the coffee flavour making the first cut!!!
Sunday was an interesting day too as George Massaro, Andrea and Elaine’s 13 year old nephew visited with his dad who was up again doing a few odd jobs, had his first go as a barista – donning a Massaro polo shirt and apron he poured his first espresso, cappuccino and latte macchiato – and what an effort – as you will soon see the Massaro’s coffee machine takes no prisoners as it is a traditional hand lever machine and George managed admirably so expect to see him perfectly extracting your espresso – OK so he is 13 so it may be a while before he does but he is a natural.
Abbie Massaro, George’s sister also came up to visit but the lure of streaming X Factor on Andrea’s lap top was far too much a drawer for her to have her first go at being a barista but there is still time!!
Well Massaro’s is days away from opening and unfortunately there will not be as much available from the start as they would have liked but there really is plenty to start with and we hope you will all enjoy.
Before I forget, thank you to Pete for his comment – unfortunately we will not be open before your long weekend to Rome however if you read this and are passing Massaro’s tomorrow then please pop in for an espresso on the house – you will be nearly the first to try the 4th attempt at Massaro’s selecting the right espresso glass!!!
Finally Massaro’s now has a new member of staff – her name is Cecilia and she is starting on Thursday and then will work weekends – she, like Daisy is lovely and I am sure will be an asset to Massaro’s and do her best to make your experience at Massaro’s a memorable one.
Bye for now and more very soon.
Cheeky
Well, well another exciting day for Andrea and Elaine. Today was the day that the ice cream sorry gelato arrived at Massaro’s. Two lovely ladies rolled up at midday today with their van and out came a truly amazing product and if ever the word artisan was invented this is what it was for – this is gelato in its truest form –basically no cream and just pure quality ingredients hand mixed culminating in a taste sensation – pistachios from Bronte – hazelnuts from Piemonte – British fruit when it is equal to Italian – no expense spared in producing this truly exquisite gelato – and where is it made – Italy you may think – but no it hails from London produced by some wonderful people with a rich and long history in gelato production – as with the coffee Andrea and Elaine have tried many gelatos and many from Italy but this is simply the best they have found and soon you will get to taste for yourself.
Your initial choice whether it be a single scoop or 1 litre to take home for a dinner party will be from Cioccalato, Caffe, Cookies, Nocciola or Vaniglia and if you prefer sorbetti then choose from Limone and Fragole ( Lemon or Strawberry ). I’ll let you into a little secret – hiding in the freezer counter is a pistachio gelato so to see it sooner one of the ones above will have to be sold for it to come out so get buying because the pistachio one is, if possible, even better than the rest but a heated discussion between Elaine and Andrea resulted in the coffee flavour making the first cut!!!
Sunday was an interesting day too as George Massaro, Andrea and Elaine’s 13 year old nephew visited with his dad who was up again doing a few odd jobs, had his first go as a barista – donning a Massaro polo shirt and apron he poured his first espresso, cappuccino and latte macchiato – and what an effort – as you will soon see the Massaro’s coffee machine takes no prisoners as it is a traditional hand lever machine and George managed admirably so expect to see him perfectly extracting your espresso – OK so he is 13 so it may be a while before he does but he is a natural.
Abbie Massaro, George’s sister also came up to visit but the lure of streaming X Factor on Andrea’s lap top was far too much a drawer for her to have her first go at being a barista but there is still time!!
Well Massaro’s is days away from opening and unfortunately there will not be as much available from the start as they would have liked but there really is plenty to start with and we hope you will all enjoy.
Before I forget, thank you to Pete for his comment – unfortunately we will not be open before your long weekend to Rome however if you read this and are passing Massaro’s tomorrow then please pop in for an espresso on the house – you will be nearly the first to try the 4th attempt at Massaro’s selecting the right espresso glass!!!
Finally Massaro’s now has a new member of staff – her name is Cecilia and she is starting on Thursday and then will work weekends – she, like Daisy is lovely and I am sure will be an asset to Massaro’s and do her best to make your experience at Massaro’s a memorable one.
Bye for now and more very soon.
Cheeky
Sunday, 9 November 2008
A Cupping Success !!
Hello All
Well the title of this entry says it all ( By the way cupping is the coffee term for tasting coffee and selecting blends) – Massaro’s have a coffee it is happy with and boy did it take some effort. Last Thursday we went on a long drive and I was parked outside a normal looking industrial estate way up north. Inside Andrea and Elaine were having an experience they will never forget and the end result was a unique Massaro’s blend of espresso. If you are reading this thank you very much Steve for all your efforts and it is an experience that will never been forgotten.
A very detailed brief was written by Andrea several days before and on Thursday they tasted many single origin coffees in order to make a blend of espresso that they were happy with. This was achieved at about 8pm on Thursday and then to the roasting. In front of their eyes they watched the extremely talented coffee roaster aka Steve roast each individual coffee to go in the blend and were amazed by his constant checking of the beans as they roasted and his ability to know how close it was to perfection by appearance and smell alone - no fancy computer programmes or huge multi tonne roasters – just small batches of the highest hand selected, quality green coffee beans along with pure knowledge and feel for the end product – you don’t get much more artisan than that!! Once finished it was blended and 6 kilos were safely taken back to Massaro’s and this is the coffee you will be enjoying very soon.
As an espresso Andrea says it hits all the notes and is also very good in cappuccino and latte macchiato. This was part of the challenge as ideally you would have one for espresso and one for milk based drinks but this is not practical due to space but with a little care and some precise measuring and of course a fully manual and traditional coffee machine you will get great espresso, cappuccino and latte macchiato. You have to bare with them though as now that they finally after 6 weeks of looking have a great espresso blend they need to perfect it with their machine and staff. I’ll also let you into a little secret – it will be a few weeks until you get it at its best as the expert roaster has said with the coffee chosen it is not at its best until 14-21 days of roasting. The aim is that eventually at Massaro’s you will only ever have the coffee in this stage but it will take some time to perfect the ordering levels to ensure this but as with everything at Massaro’s it will be achieved.
So finally after much searching and a day of caffeine overload Andrea and Elaine have a coffee they are happy with and now hope that by the end of the week you will all be enjoying it. We also hope that you will bare with us as we try and perfect everything as we are trying very hard to do so and will get there but as we need to open now not all will be in place immediately but we think there is more than enough for you to enjoy from day one and it will just get better.
Bye for now and more news very soon.
PS Thank you for your comment from the person at Downing – we look forward to seeing you very soon and hope you enjoy all our products.
Well the title of this entry says it all ( By the way cupping is the coffee term for tasting coffee and selecting blends) – Massaro’s have a coffee it is happy with and boy did it take some effort. Last Thursday we went on a long drive and I was parked outside a normal looking industrial estate way up north. Inside Andrea and Elaine were having an experience they will never forget and the end result was a unique Massaro’s blend of espresso. If you are reading this thank you very much Steve for all your efforts and it is an experience that will never been forgotten.
A very detailed brief was written by Andrea several days before and on Thursday they tasted many single origin coffees in order to make a blend of espresso that they were happy with. This was achieved at about 8pm on Thursday and then to the roasting. In front of their eyes they watched the extremely talented coffee roaster aka Steve roast each individual coffee to go in the blend and were amazed by his constant checking of the beans as they roasted and his ability to know how close it was to perfection by appearance and smell alone - no fancy computer programmes or huge multi tonne roasters – just small batches of the highest hand selected, quality green coffee beans along with pure knowledge and feel for the end product – you don’t get much more artisan than that!! Once finished it was blended and 6 kilos were safely taken back to Massaro’s and this is the coffee you will be enjoying very soon.
As an espresso Andrea says it hits all the notes and is also very good in cappuccino and latte macchiato. This was part of the challenge as ideally you would have one for espresso and one for milk based drinks but this is not practical due to space but with a little care and some precise measuring and of course a fully manual and traditional coffee machine you will get great espresso, cappuccino and latte macchiato. You have to bare with them though as now that they finally after 6 weeks of looking have a great espresso blend they need to perfect it with their machine and staff. I’ll also let you into a little secret – it will be a few weeks until you get it at its best as the expert roaster has said with the coffee chosen it is not at its best until 14-21 days of roasting. The aim is that eventually at Massaro’s you will only ever have the coffee in this stage but it will take some time to perfect the ordering levels to ensure this but as with everything at Massaro’s it will be achieved.
So finally after much searching and a day of caffeine overload Andrea and Elaine have a coffee they are happy with and now hope that by the end of the week you will all be enjoying it. We also hope that you will bare with us as we try and perfect everything as we are trying very hard to do so and will get there but as we need to open now not all will be in place immediately but we think there is more than enough for you to enjoy from day one and it will just get better.
Bye for now and more news very soon.
PS Thank you for your comment from the person at Downing – we look forward to seeing you very soon and hope you enjoy all our products.
Monday, 3 November 2008
Hello again. Well first of all thank you to the person who asked about the coffee. Yes the idea is to have artisan coffee as well as all our other products. This is much more difficult than we first thought even after spending years preparing and is one of the reasons why it is taking longer than we would have liked to open the doors. We are still working hard on the coffee front and hope to have some further developments this week but rest assured we have tried many are still doing so and we hope to get it right before we open. However if we do not we will not stop looking and that goes for all products.
For example we have not found a complete range of olive oils and especially balsamic vinegars that we are happy are good enough so we will only stock what we do and will keep looking. Of course all these things are a matter of taste and all we can do is select what we think is right and if we are happy with it then we can let you sample and hopefully you will agree.
There have been a few more delays and we are now hoping to open either late this week or early next week but we are working as hard as we can. We also now have to select Christmas stock in order to make sure we have lots of nice goodies for you to treat yourselves to or buy as a gift – there are some great products coming in from hand made panettone to some extremely fantastic chocolate which is one of the best in the world. Fruits in syrups and various alcohols including kirsch are also on their way. Panforte is already in and the very traditional and authentic panpepato will also be available.
Well just a short one this time and finally as I have only had 1 comment!! Andrea has decided to offer a free buffalo mozzarella to the first 10 people to come in and say “I have read Cheekys blog and I want my free mozzarella”
There is usually someone there all day so if the door is open pop in and get your free mozzarella. This is only for the first 10 people as we only have 10!!
I’ll update again soon an I hope 10 of you enjoy your mozzarella!!
For example we have not found a complete range of olive oils and especially balsamic vinegars that we are happy are good enough so we will only stock what we do and will keep looking. Of course all these things are a matter of taste and all we can do is select what we think is right and if we are happy with it then we can let you sample and hopefully you will agree.
There have been a few more delays and we are now hoping to open either late this week or early next week but we are working as hard as we can. We also now have to select Christmas stock in order to make sure we have lots of nice goodies for you to treat yourselves to or buy as a gift – there are some great products coming in from hand made panettone to some extremely fantastic chocolate which is one of the best in the world. Fruits in syrups and various alcohols including kirsch are also on their way. Panforte is already in and the very traditional and authentic panpepato will also be available.
Well just a short one this time and finally as I have only had 1 comment!! Andrea has decided to offer a free buffalo mozzarella to the first 10 people to come in and say “I have read Cheekys blog and I want my free mozzarella”
There is usually someone there all day so if the door is open pop in and get your free mozzarella. This is only for the first 10 people as we only have 10!!
I’ll update again soon an I hope 10 of you enjoy your mozzarella!!
Thursday, 30 October 2008
Wow not even a week since last time!!!
Hello again and although it has been nearly a week since I last updated it is much sooner than usual!!
Well first of all if ever an answer was needed as to why it takes time to open such a shop and the unprecedented problems here’s a few examples
On Sunday Andrea was happily doing an olive oil tasting in order to finalise Massaro’s olive oil range when Elaine noticed that one of the external drains was blocked – he then spent the next 4 hours unblocking and cleaning the drains and with his brother coming in again to finish a few jobs later that day and his mum coming to help also that was the end of the olive oil session and he has not had time to get back to it since.
Yesterday he spent nearly 2 hours locked in the cold room!! Daisy was putting stock away in the cold room which was one of the basement rooms which they had converted into a cold room and she closed the door behind her to go and get some more stock – when she returned the door wouldn’t open. That was the end of that for then but later last night Andrea managed to get into it and after some time managed to get in and decided it was the door handle that was faulty. He took a handle off another door and went in to fit it - after fitting it from the inside the door wouldn’t open again and this time he was locked in – some time later a much colder Andrea managed to get out and then sorted the door out – well for now anyway. It wasn’t all bad though because if you have been following you will know that it is actually Andrea’s favourite room – Elaine thinks he could have got out sooner but he chose to stay in there so he could spend more time with the cheeses and salumi!!!!
If that wasn’t enough there is now a problem with the power upstairs whereby it keeps tripping and of course this needs to be sorted out before opening.
On a brighter note some lovely cheeses arrive today for Andrea and Elaine to sample and they say they are very nice. A young Pecorino from Sardinia has a very fruity taste with hints of pineapple – an amazingly named cheese ( Formaggio Bastardo!!) - no English translation needed, was also very nice and will appeal to you cheddar lovers out there – a fantastic new cheese to even the supplier – Pecorino Gran Sardo is very similar to the more commonly known Grana Padano but is made from sheeps milk and is much smoother whilst still having that slight grainy texture – finally Pecorino Pepato will appeal to anyone who knows the very commercial Pecorino Romano – Andrea has not been able to find an artisan Pecorino Romano but this will substitute nicely as it has the salty taste as well as a nice grating texture and enhanced even further by its peppery taste (pepato) due to it having whole peppercorns in it and of course it is produced in an artisan manner.
Some great cheeses for stock have also arrived but due to more delays some will not see the opening day as they are very fresh cheeses such as mozzarella di bufala, stracchino and caprino fresco – I think some local Regent Street businesses will be having some samples very soon!!!
Well that’s it for now but more soon - I promise.
Cheeky
Well first of all if ever an answer was needed as to why it takes time to open such a shop and the unprecedented problems here’s a few examples
On Sunday Andrea was happily doing an olive oil tasting in order to finalise Massaro’s olive oil range when Elaine noticed that one of the external drains was blocked – he then spent the next 4 hours unblocking and cleaning the drains and with his brother coming in again to finish a few jobs later that day and his mum coming to help also that was the end of the olive oil session and he has not had time to get back to it since.
Yesterday he spent nearly 2 hours locked in the cold room!! Daisy was putting stock away in the cold room which was one of the basement rooms which they had converted into a cold room and she closed the door behind her to go and get some more stock – when she returned the door wouldn’t open. That was the end of that for then but later last night Andrea managed to get into it and after some time managed to get in and decided it was the door handle that was faulty. He took a handle off another door and went in to fit it - after fitting it from the inside the door wouldn’t open again and this time he was locked in – some time later a much colder Andrea managed to get out and then sorted the door out – well for now anyway. It wasn’t all bad though because if you have been following you will know that it is actually Andrea’s favourite room – Elaine thinks he could have got out sooner but he chose to stay in there so he could spend more time with the cheeses and salumi!!!!
If that wasn’t enough there is now a problem with the power upstairs whereby it keeps tripping and of course this needs to be sorted out before opening.
On a brighter note some lovely cheeses arrive today for Andrea and Elaine to sample and they say they are very nice. A young Pecorino from Sardinia has a very fruity taste with hints of pineapple – an amazingly named cheese ( Formaggio Bastardo!!) - no English translation needed, was also very nice and will appeal to you cheddar lovers out there – a fantastic new cheese to even the supplier – Pecorino Gran Sardo is very similar to the more commonly known Grana Padano but is made from sheeps milk and is much smoother whilst still having that slight grainy texture – finally Pecorino Pepato will appeal to anyone who knows the very commercial Pecorino Romano – Andrea has not been able to find an artisan Pecorino Romano but this will substitute nicely as it has the salty taste as well as a nice grating texture and enhanced even further by its peppery taste (pepato) due to it having whole peppercorns in it and of course it is produced in an artisan manner.
Some great cheeses for stock have also arrived but due to more delays some will not see the opening day as they are very fresh cheeses such as mozzarella di bufala, stracchino and caprino fresco – I think some local Regent Street businesses will be having some samples very soon!!!
Well that’s it for now but more soon - I promise.
Cheeky
Saturday, 25 October 2008
Hello All
Well well I haven’t been updating as I promised but we have been just so busy trying to get the shop open as quickly as we can. I will start from today and give you a brief summary of what has happened since last time I updated.
Today we went to Andrea’s mum’s house as it will probably be the last time she gets to see both her children and 4 grandchildren for a while. Andrea’s brother works in Formula One so he is away a lot and of course with Andrea and Elaine so busy with the shop they have not been able to go to their mums as often so for the first time in ages we all went to see Andrea’s mum and it was the first day they had off for a long time – it has been 5 months now you know since they took the keys to the shop. To be honest they find it very hard to take a day off and even today we went to Bedford to see a potential cake supplier for the shop so was not a complete break but as close as they get to one!!
So what has been happening – well this week lots more stock started to arrive and for the first time cheese and salumi has arrived and Andrea could not resist going into the cold room every so often on Friday just to smell the cheese and salumi – he loves the smell that only good artisan produce emits. Elaine says that when they retire she will get him a cheese and meat maturing room just so he can spend his days with cheese and salumi!!
Andrea’s brother, Franco, was over this week helping put some finishing touches to the shop and they were very happy for this help as they have had to do most of it themselves but they did get a very nice compliment the other day – a local food shop came in to ask who had done the signs and design for the shop as he wanted to revamp his shop – he then asked where the other Massaro’s shops were – he thought it must have been a chain or franchise from London and he was very impressed to hear that this was a first and had all been done by Andrea and Elaine.
So much has gone on since I last wrote so I don’t know hoe to summarise but basically there have been lots more trips to suppliers and lots of hard work and is all coming together now and the only disappointment is that the shop i s not open yet as we had hoped to be open some time ago but Andrea and Elaine are so adamant that everything needs to be right and it is not as simple as it may sound.
However they have conceded that they must open soon and they are hoping to open at the end of next week. Andrea is a little sad about this as he doesn’t feel it is all right yet and he has had very little actually no time to do his favourite thing which is to cook so maybe after all this effort they may not open with all the plans they had but it will come and they just hope that customers keep coming to see what else is available because the ultimate will be great and to be honest Andrea is a perfectionist and so what you get from day one will be very very good but he is never satisfied – well that is what Elaine says.
OK I promise from today on to update you more often but I have said that before so don’t hold your breath!! But I will try.
Finally I found out today that Andrea’s cousin also called Franco ( I’ll explain another time ) has been reading my blog – I have never met him but his mum has seen me at Andrea’s mums house as she lives across the road but thank you for reading and we hope to see you in the shop one day although I might not be outside the shop as I have now got my own parking space and Andrea doesn’t get the time to take me the nearer the shop especially as there is a local traffic warden that has it in for me and keeps sticking tickets on me – you know who you are!!
Bye for now
Cheeky
Today we went to Andrea’s mum’s house as it will probably be the last time she gets to see both her children and 4 grandchildren for a while. Andrea’s brother works in Formula One so he is away a lot and of course with Andrea and Elaine so busy with the shop they have not been able to go to their mums as often so for the first time in ages we all went to see Andrea’s mum and it was the first day they had off for a long time – it has been 5 months now you know since they took the keys to the shop. To be honest they find it very hard to take a day off and even today we went to Bedford to see a potential cake supplier for the shop so was not a complete break but as close as they get to one!!
So what has been happening – well this week lots more stock started to arrive and for the first time cheese and salumi has arrived and Andrea could not resist going into the cold room every so often on Friday just to smell the cheese and salumi – he loves the smell that only good artisan produce emits. Elaine says that when they retire she will get him a cheese and meat maturing room just so he can spend his days with cheese and salumi!!
Andrea’s brother, Franco, was over this week helping put some finishing touches to the shop and they were very happy for this help as they have had to do most of it themselves but they did get a very nice compliment the other day – a local food shop came in to ask who had done the signs and design for the shop as he wanted to revamp his shop – he then asked where the other Massaro’s shops were – he thought it must have been a chain or franchise from London and he was very impressed to hear that this was a first and had all been done by Andrea and Elaine.
So much has gone on since I last wrote so I don’t know hoe to summarise but basically there have been lots more trips to suppliers and lots of hard work and is all coming together now and the only disappointment is that the shop i s not open yet as we had hoped to be open some time ago but Andrea and Elaine are so adamant that everything needs to be right and it is not as simple as it may sound.
However they have conceded that they must open soon and they are hoping to open at the end of next week. Andrea is a little sad about this as he doesn’t feel it is all right yet and he has had very little actually no time to do his favourite thing which is to cook so maybe after all this effort they may not open with all the plans they had but it will come and they just hope that customers keep coming to see what else is available because the ultimate will be great and to be honest Andrea is a perfectionist and so what you get from day one will be very very good but he is never satisfied – well that is what Elaine says.
OK I promise from today on to update you more often but I have said that before so don’t hold your breath!! But I will try.
Finally I found out today that Andrea’s cousin also called Franco ( I’ll explain another time ) has been reading my blog – I have never met him but his mum has seen me at Andrea’s mums house as she lives across the road but thank you for reading and we hope to see you in the shop one day although I might not be outside the shop as I have now got my own parking space and Andrea doesn’t get the time to take me the nearer the shop especially as there is a local traffic warden that has it in for me and keeps sticking tickets on me – you know who you are!!
Bye for now
Cheeky
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