When we sat down to review the new menu, we knew that we wanted to produce something special – something that other cafes and coffee shops didn’t do. I’ve been inspired by the food of New York Delis such as Katz’s Delicatessen which featured in the film When Harry Met Sally (I’ll have whatever she’s having!!). They have brought eastern-European Jewish cuisine to the streets of the Big Apple for a hundred years or so. The challenge was how to get the right taste, with a much healthier serving and to give it a really Cumbrian twist?
It all started off about six months ago when we cured out very first brisket. We developed a wet cure (i.e. a mixture of water, salt and spices) and popped the joint in a container in the fridge. We turned it daily and when three weeks had passed, we baked the brisket for 8 or so hours. The result was amazing – a truly delicious beef dish. So we popped it in a sandwich with emmental cheese, gherkins and added it to our specials board calling it the Brooklyn Stack. It sold really well.
But that simply wasn’t good enough. We wanted to design a truly Cumbrian sandwich that would reflect the best of the county’s produce.
So, this is how we came to design The Buttermere which now sits proudly in the Featured Sandwich part of our new menu with several other great Cumbrian sandwiches.
So we take one of our own rolls and add mustard from the Cumberland Mustard company in Alston. We load the sandwich with salt beef made from Cumbrian Beef and cured at Lakeland Prime Cuts in Embleton. We then add Eden Ivory cheese from the Appleby Creamery. Finally, we apply a generous portion of Bread and Butter pickle from Wild and Fruitful in Wigton. It’s a truly tasty and wholly Cumbrian sandwich. It’s amazing.
We didn’t rest there but went on to create another four feature sandwiches: the Crummock where we use our own pastrami; the Loweswater which features our own corned beef (very different from the stuff in the tin); the Bassenthwaite which features real buffalo mozzarella and marinated cherry tomatoes; and finally the Derwent where we use ham that we honey roast ourselves.
Each one is different. Each one uses great Cumbrian produce. Each one tastes great.
Come and see…