Bravo, R's Kitchen!

I suggested to Anne that we visit R's Kitchen - we we were walking back from Poole Museum, at the end of the Old High Street - we'd been beguiled by the 1950's kitchens set up in an upper floor of the museum - the stolid cream gas cookers evoked memories of Shepherd's Pie and watery greens - the 1950's adverts showed smiling women with perms welcoming their husbands back home after work -

Back in the rainy street, we saw R's Kitchen, with its bright green sign - I liked the look of the place, and slid inside - Anne followed - if we'd been beguiled by the contents and fabric of Poole Museum, then now we were doubly charmed -

I'm always in the look out for a cafe where I feel perfectly at home - by this, I mean it has to be a space where I can reflect upon my life, where I can consider, calmly, the bright rags of the world - the cafe can be anywhere -

I found, for example, such a space in  Budapest, to be precise, in Pest, on the eastern side of the  Danube - I looked out of the cafe's windows, at the thick snow falling from the dark skies - we'd swum in the outside pools of the Szechyeni Baths, looking up at the snow flakes -

Here, inside R's Kitchen, I felt just as I had, in Pest, a world away - I was relaxed, part of, yet not part of, the buzzing world -

There were copies of The Guardian to look at - a high ceiling above was decorated with a pleasing frieze - handsome clocks hung from a wall of bare brick - spare, elegant, tables were set out on polished floorboards -

The food was, quite simply, marvellous - all of the ingredients locally sourced - the girls serving you were quirky and charming -

Russell, himself, was enthusiastic and charismatic - he'd moved down from London - he said that a friend had urged him to take up cooking - he'd been training as an accountant - it had taken his family years to accept his change of career -

Whenever I was in Poole after this first visit, I made a point of going to R's Kitchen - I was never disappointed -

I was, therefore, much cast down when Russell told me recently that this was his last week - he would be moving - the place was closing down - the letting agent had given Russell no choice -

- It takes three years to get started, to build up a clientele, Russell told me - but these guys, they just sit in front of a screen - they don't know what's going on - 

Russell said he'd stay down here - I hope he gets another place started - I'd recommend it to anyone, in advance - I'd say - go there!

Bravo, R's Kitchen - Bravo!