Here's Johnny
Royal De Luxe aren't the only people around here who own an elephant – take celebrity chef Simon Rimmer who, in April, revealed to Liverpool Confidential readers how he intended to transform the fortunes of the 170-year-old Woolton pub of the same name.
He talked the talk, now it is time for this baby to walk.
“The Elephant Pub & Bakehouse”, reopens next week after an extensive makeover. The venture is in partnership with pals Neil Macleod and Roy Ellis who were responsible for the Revolution bars and who co-founded Inventive Leisure.
The highly-anticipated launch party, on Friday August 1, is as much the talk of the village as the heated debate over where to put St Julie's School. But to warm things up, Rimmer, host of Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch, has called on his chum Johnny Vegas to lend a hand. The pair will be hosting a quiz night at the pub next Tuesday, July 29. It's all about raising funds for Alder Hey and they promise “a rip-roaring pub quiz like no other”. Email this chap if you want to be part of this little Benidorm.
A Pizza Pilgrims jobbie
'Liverpool's best pizza'
Liverpool Confidential was down at the Elephant, which was, how shall we say, a work in progress, a couple of weeks ago. Unlike a lot of famous chefs who stick their name on the menu and you never see them for dust again, Simon Rimmer was very much in the building – and there was plenty of dust to go round.
He and Head Chef James Connolly are promising “proper, no nonsense food” but what about this Bakehouse bit?
Simon RimmerAs well as a range of bread, cakes that will give the bake-house its name, they have a wood fired pizza oven that is hotter than Hell. But that is not all.
Simon went to Pizza Pilgrims in London's Soho to learn about their dough technique, which is a special slow prove technique over 24 hours.
Now he is promising to serve the BEST pizza in Liverpool. Or as we may soon have rise to say in these parts: They do dough, don't they?
Open wide: A pizza fit for a giant - and you will be
Liverpool's biggest pizza
Royal De Luxe’s street puppets are about to take over the city, and that is hungry work. So Duke Street's Il Forno have created a whopping one-metre long pizza fit for a giant, or just your average pizza-loving greedy git.
They say it is "especially for diners who want to celebrate with the Little Girl Giant and Xolo when they take their siesta at the Chinese Arch, just a few yards away from Il Forno on Friday July 25".
The pizza, they add, will commemorate the Memories of 1914 by using a mixture of traditional ingredients to base their five-cereal dough which mixes flours such as rye, flax, spelt, rice, oat and wheat germ, creating a pizza rich in antioxidants, B vitamins, proteins and fibres. Whatever.
The pizza can feed up to eight people, note, eight people, not one. It will be available throughout the Royal De Luxe weekend at £24.95 and anyone wishing to order one can either call 0151 709 4002 or just turn up.
Manager Donato says: "I am hoping a lot of visitors will pop in to try our new pizza and you never know, perhaps the Little Girl Giant will also want to order one.”
Albion Fish And Chips
Posh fish n chips for Crosby
It has been a long time coming, the opening of Albion restaurant, on Coronation Road, Crosby. The L23 outpost of Camp & Furnace chef Steve Burgess has many things in its armoury to write about - and we will get round to it soon. But Confidential couldn't resist a sneak peek a couple of Saturday lunchtimes ago.
The other thing that has been a long time coming to Crosby is posh sit-down fish and chips (fans of George and Angela's splendid chippy should look away now). Thus, craving lard and knowing a marathon sesh was in store that night there was only one responsible way forward. At £12, it was a good thick thumper of a fish straight from Neve's in Fleetwood - and with some proper old fashioned marrowfat mushy peas it more than did the trick.
Albion's USP is that it is an all-British restaurant - even the vinegar is "artisan aged malt" from Cornwall. So it was perhaps a surprise to discover that rather than the use the King of the Native Soil, the Edward, for his chips, Mr Burgess prefers the charms of the Cyprus Spunta.
He is quite right (no not that sort of "Right"). For as every decent chef knows, no EU immigrant spud performs better when lashed into scalding English beef dripping. UKIP outrage to follow.
