As regular readers / guests will know, we’re always keen on all things food. And so we were pleased that two new restaurants / bars have opened close to The Somerville. It’s good to be able to report that they are great additions to the already enormous choice in Torquay.
First up, on the harbourside itself the old Cinnabar has had a major redevelopment and is now called The Yacht. It is looking rather cool, both with its new décor and with the newly added Champagne Bar on the top level, overlooking the harbour. It’s a ‘must visit’. It is also distilling its own unique ‘Coastal Gins’. If you fancy trying these local recipes while overlooking the harbour from their balcony let us know and we`ll happily join you!
And secondly, the old Bianco`s Italian restaurant has been taken over by the lovely Emily and her partner who, funnily enough, used to work opposite in Amicis. The new restaurant is appropriately called The Globe, recognizing that it is serving recipes from around the world. We love the idea of the menu changing weekly with international dishes. Feedback via our guests has been fabulous and to make things even easier, this is very near indeed to The Somerville.
We often book restaurants for our guests, especially at weekends, so let us know and we`ll do it for you.
Music And More
Another new venue, literally 200 metres down the road, is Arena. It’s a music venue plus comedy club and they have posted who is coming to Torquay over the coming months.
For example, Jeff Stelling, the rather amusing football pundit, is having a Q&A evening and that should be great if you’re a football fan. (But note that he’s not here until Jan 15th next year.) Check out all that they have on their site.
A Super Sleuth
We are delighted we now have a wonderful brochure produced for our local tourist information centre, called the Agatha Christie Mile. The walk, obviously enough tied-in with the famous author, includes a brand new statue in the harbourside (600 yards from the Somerville). It’s proving justifiably popular with visitors (and us!). There’s more information and details about the walk on the English Riviera site.
Properly Local Honey
Lastly for this update, we were recently visited by a swarm of honey bees, who decided to visit The Somerville gardens on a sunny day. Having no previous experience of having a sky full of bees, their arrival was pretty scary. However, after a telephone call to the local bee keepers association a lovely man arrived within two hours and collected the queen and her many drones or helpers. And the next day the beekeeper called in with a generous donation of honeycomb, which guests have been enjoying with their breakfasts. (It’s delicious with our Greek Yoghurt.) You’d be hard pushed to get honey that’s more local.
If you would like to see the beekeeper in a live video collecting the swarm then check out our Facebook or Instagram pages.
And that’s all for this update, and we look forward to seeing you when you visit. Thanks for your time.
Peter and Helen
