La Trappiste

It's been a week since I'd seen Ellie and Claire.  A week.  Now that may not sound like much to you but when you are used to seeing each other at least 3 times a week this feels like an absolute age.  I'm not being melodramatic when I say that a few more hours would have resulted in palpitations and profuse sweating.  This was a friendship medical emergency and we needed to get lunch together stat.

We organised the date, I promised to do a bit of online research into where we should go (too many choices), utterly failed to make good on that promise (too much to do at work) and in the end Ellie made the decision for us.

Photo courtesy of imagekind.com

Photo courtesy of www.geograph.org.uk

La Trappiste.  Or, in, Ellie's words, the Belgian place that does nice chips.  It's an olive green cafe shaped like an scalene triangle that is sandwiched right between Chambers and The Chocolate Cafe.

La Trappiste shouldn't really work.  It's a bar, restaurant, coffee house, bakery (including bespoke celebration cakes), patisserie, breakfast joint and baking school all under one roof.  By anyone's measure that's a lot going on, and yet, somehow, it all fits.  By their own admission they are 'not just a resturant' and I get the feeling that they might be a bit insulted if you were to describe them as such!

I've heard mixed things about La Trappiste.  Some reviews have absolutely raved about it; others have described the food as mediocre and the service as less than stellar.   I've never been before so it was with a fair amount of trepidation that I made my way up the soggy highstreet one Sunday afternoon, trying to keep my umbrella the right way round (umbrella's and Canterbury don't mix.  We always tell the students not to bother and just bring a hooded coat - I don't know why I don't listen to our own words of wisdom) and wondering where on earth everybody was.  It was the last weekend in January and the city appeared deserted.  This could have been the torrential rain or the fact that most people were waiting to be paid, but it was a little eerie how quiet everywhere was.

I got a text just as I was running up the highstreet to say that the girls were upstairs in the gallery.  This space is huge, with a glass floor that you can look through to see people below in the bar (don't stand on it wearing a skirt), a huge glass ceiling that just pours light in and a terrace that acts as a suntrap in the summertime overlooking the bustling highstreet.

Decor wise.  It's...eclectic.  The life size sculpture of Botticelli's Birth of Venus hanging on the wall complete with painted toe ring, with her modesty covered by what looks like a cheap nightie bought in a charity shop and painted, was just weird.  I'm not an artist but this was just baffling.

 

The rest of the decor was along similar lines and just made me a bit puzzled.  The murals crossed greco-roman mythology and attitudes with early Christian monastic engravings, all in a tribute to beer. Downstairs felt more in keeping with the continental feel of the restaurant, with mismatched booths padded in green leather and wood fixtures.  The decor does makes you smile which I like.  The longer I sat upstairs the more I loved it.  It's nice to see somewhere where there is a ton of personality and clearly a huge amount of effort has gone into hand painting the walls.

In the toilets (what is it about Canterbury's restaurant toilets that always have the interesting features?) there are stone carved murals which have the appearance of having been uncovered and preserved.  It would have been nice to have had a bit of background information to these but alas, I could find none.  As a side note in the toilets they also have a big bag of useful things for parents with babies when they need to change them, like wet wipes and spare nappies.  It's a really thoughtful little touch - I'm not sure if they have them in the men's as well, but I would hope so (is it obvious that I work in an equality field?).  In case you were wondering, I don't normally take my camera to the toilet.  I just came out to get it when I saw the wall murals.

So anyway, enough of what the place looked like, onto the food!  First up, the drinks menu, which also gave a little bit of background to La Trappiste.  I love the fact that you can get traditional drinks like dandelion and burdock or sarsaparilla here.  It makes it feel a bit more olde worlde. 

The menu is enormous, with oysters and pigeon breast to burgers and Belgian beef stew, fish and chips, steak frites, risotto, tarts and of course mussel pots in a variety of flavour options.  Claire went for the traditional moules frites with garlic, white wine and cream.

I went for the BBQ pulled pork and cheese roll with chips and jalapeno's.

While Ellie went for a burger in a foccacio bun.  All the meals were simple, straightforward and filling with good flavours.   My pork could have done with a little more heat and the jalapeno's a little more vinegar to cut through the sweetness of the BBQ pork but it was still tasty.  Claire's mussels were fresh, plump and tasted of the sea and Ellie's burger was cooked perfectly and clearly freshly made. 

After having our scraped clean plates cleared away we then moved onto dessert from the patisserie counter.  I can't exactly remember what Ellie had but there was chocolate and raspberry mousse involved.  It was nice but again I could have done with more fruit kick and a bit more bitterness in the chocolate (I pinched a couple of forkfuls off her). I'm a bit hard to please with regards to patisserie as, to be honest, I'm not that big a fan of it (I would much rather have a hot chocolate fudge brownie or a slice of lemon tart, hence the reason I didn't order dessert and just pinched a taste of the others to try it) so I'm probably being unfair here! Claire had Coffee Choux which, I must admit was divine, and just look at that delicate piping work.  Again I only had a taste as I don't normally like cream cakes but this was lovely.

We stayed and chatted all afternoon as the rain pounded down outside until the light started to fade slightly and we realised with shock we had been sat there for coming up to three hours.  All credit to the staff, they were attentive and ensured we weren't left waiting for service without crowding us or making us feel like we had to leave.  To be honest, there was barely anyone else there so I would have been irritated if we had been forced out!  It may be different when there is greater pressure on tables.

Overall, it's not the best lunch I have ever had in Canterbury but it was also certainly not the worst by a long stretch and it was reasonably priced.   I feel a bit of a soft spot for La Trappiste.  It is quirky and has character and I like that about it.  Would I come back again?  Absolutely - I want to road test the steak and that huge beer and ale selection I spied behind the bar as we left...

Chambers

In 1629 a man lived in Canterbury called Robert Cushman.  A puritan and married to Sarah Jekel, Robert and his wife were living in Sun Street.  However, this was not the peaceful existence Robert has hoped for.  Being a puritan he had been excommunicated from the Church of England, an awful fate as you were cut off from God and to rub salt into his wounds he had spent time in the dismal cells of the Westgate Towers.  Disillusioned and unhappy with the way Puritans were being treated in England Robert commissioned a ship, a certain ship called the Mayflower.

You may have heard of it.

The negotiations were drawn out and lengthy and Robert managed the deal at a little hostelry located on 59 Palace Street.

This is 59 Palace Street as it looks today.

Chambers is a tiny little restaurant just around the corner from the Cathedral.    There has been a cafe or hostelry on this spot since the 1550's, making it one of the most ancient gossip houses in Canterbury. 

Chambers is so close to the Cathedral that if you are lucky you can get the table upstairs with this view.

It's pretty spectacular and well worth heading upstairs to eat or drink just to see if you can be lucky enough to get the seat.  The Cathedral view isn't the only reason to visit though.  In the little courtyard are these green doors, which, if you are really lucky, will be open when you visit.  It's the Masons yard and it's not accessible to the public at all.  In the 1600's this was where people would have left their horses to be fed and watered whilst they fed and watered themselves in the hostelry.  In fact, under the rules of being located on Cathedral land, if any horses and carriages do come to Chambers they are fairly sure that they would be obliged to offer them hay!

If the doors are open then you will be privileged to see the masons hard at work just as they have been for centuries, sawing and carving the Cathedral stone by hand, stone that is bought in from Caen, France.  This is art in motion, coming to life before your eyes.

Upstairs there is one of the most photographed paintings in Canterbury.  It used to hang outside the shop but was recently bought inside as it is now irreparable.  It shows the Mayflower, the ship that carried the pilgrims to America and the ship whose hire was negotiated in these very premises.  

The building itself is tiny and crooked with slanting floors, low ceilings and a mishmash of furniture.  It still has the feel of Restoration England about it although it has clearly been refurbished numerous times over the centuries.

Inside the unisex toilet upstairs is another piece of history - a monk's bolt hole.  Deep down in the cellar there is a secret stairway which leads up, out and across to the Cathedral grounds and its many hidden tunnels.  During the reign of Henry VIII and during the persecution of the Catholic Church monks used the many secret passages hidden in the bowels of the Cathedral to escape certain death.  It is believed that the doorway in the toilet is linked to the cellar and acted as an escape route out of the hostelry and into town and safety.

So enough history, lets get to the important information - the food and drink!  Chambers serves a blend of British and American food, fully embracing the role it held in the past in shaping America.  I had a peach smoothie and Steve opted for one of the best vanilla milkshakes he has ever tasted.  Both drinks were delicious, smooth, creamy and refreshing.  My smoothie was full of fresh peach pieces and blended with apple juice.

To eat Steve and I both went for the pancake menu.  Steve opted for good old fashioned American pancakes with maple syrup - three huge pancakes that he couldn't quite finish dripping with maple syrup and dusted with icing sugar.  You can see how badly the floor slants by the fact that all the maple syrup is pooling on one side of the plate!

I had pancakes as well but went for smokey pulled pork with hot sauce (great big slices of jalapeno peppers and tender, falling apart pork) with two eggs, sunny side up and yellow, runny yolks with two pancakes and maple syrup.  This was delicious, I could happily eat this for lunch for a week solid!

Portion sizes were enormous and I couldn't quite finish my pancakes either, much as I wanted to!

Chambers is a wonderful little cafe that doesn't seem to get the coverage and publicity it really deserves although I must admit there was a steady stream of customers and it seemed to be particularly popular with tourists and teenagers. 

If you are not in the mood for pancakes then there are cakes and cream teas available, full cooked English breakfasts, burgers (the Elvis Burger with peanut butter looked intriguing) and traditional cafe food as well.  Prices are extremely reasonable and there are so many things to discover inside that it is well worth a visit!