Scoop, and a Hello to Observer Readers

Scoop
40 Shorts Gardens
WC2H 9AB
020 7240 7086

Date of Last Visit: Saturday, 13 July 2008

The Victim: Me

The Damage: £2

The Background: I don’t often post on a Sunday. But I’m pounding the keyboard a little earlier than normal today for two very good reasons…

Firstly, I had my first taste ever of gelato from Coven’t Garden’s Scoop. And I fell head-over-tiramisu-heels in love. £2 for a lovely self-selected concoction of green tea and, well, tiramisu. Good. Unbelievably good. (I also liked how when I went to take a picture, the young girl behind the counter actually HELPED me to take the picture. I was a bit worried she was going to ask me to put the camera away, but no! She helped me get a cleaner shot!)

I was first introduced to Scoop by fellow London food blogger, Silverbrow. And then Jess from Ripe London joined the love-fest. And then I saw Mario on an episode of The Apprentice, and I knew God was trying to tell me something. Go now.

Why You Should Go Out and Buy The Observer
I also wanted to post today because at 7:35 a.m., a time when no decent bakery seems to want to feed me pain au chocolat, I picked up a copy of The Observer. Jay Rayner wrote a great piece on Bloggers & Critics in The Observer Review and there’s a little profile of me. If you pick up the print version, well, I think it’s fair to say I’ve used up by 15 minutes. 

The gist of the piece is whether bloggers pose a threat to traditional media and if the world of criticism is being democratized. One of my favorite quotes in the article is from fellow London food blogger Simon of Dos Hermanos, who says of the pros, "If you’re not entertaining, however informative you are, there’s no reason for you existing"" I also like where Lynne of Dove Gray Reader says, "There’s nothing objective about what I’m doing. It’s about my emotional responses."

So if you are visiting my horribly-named blog for the first time (I think there will be a rebranding exercise in 2008), thanks for stopping by! If you want to know where this particular London food and restaurant blogger came from, you can read more about me on my About page. (And if you’d like to send me an e-mail, you’ll see my address way down at the bottom of the page.) Visit my archives–all the way back to June of 2004–to see how my prose has improved over time. (Thankfully.) I have a page devoted to my 10 favorite London restaurants, and if you have a moment, why not participate in The Leicester Square Challenge, my most popular post to date? Plus, you might enjoy some of my favorite posts.

Because you know I love statistics, I might update this post later in the week with details on the amount of referral traffic I get. So stay tuned, and again, thanks for dropping by.