Lockdown Dinners at The Dogs’ Diner (and other suspiciously similar-looking places)

It started with some fizz…

PROLOGUE

There are three things that you need to know about Chez Snail:

1.  There is an attention-loving, and hence pesky, spaniel-based lifeform called Daisy who is involved in the day-to-day running of some eating and drinking establishments shown here.
2. There is a squeaky-ball-obsessed terrier-based lifeform called Sam, who also appears to be involved in self same establishments.
3. There is a general level of silliness that pervades the very bricks and mortar of Chez Snail.

END OF PROLOGUE

Three weeks after lockdown started, the Snail said to me “Dress up, we’re going out to eat”. As only one of these things was actually illegal (my crimes of fashion were already being well documented and paid for), I thought “OK then”. And off we went, to the Limery, where The Bistro at Chez Snail has just, like a good pop-up restaurant, well, popped up. We drank fizz and ate yummy food, and I got to wash up afterwards.

Such a good idea was this (the pop-up restaurant not the washing up, although that becomes a good idea when you’re left eating off of old crisp packets), that we started up some more eating establishments. Here they are, in no order whatsoever…

First, the menus from our trips to The Bistro at Chez Snail:

First Bistro menu

Second Bistro menu

And then the cafés and cocktail bars we have frequented:

The Greasey Spaniel

On the terrace of The Greasey Spaniel

Outside the Cocktail Bar

Menu at the Cocktail Bar

And finally, the restaurants we have eaten in:

A weekly visit to the Pie Shoppe

Special time at the Pie Shoppe

Our local Tandoori

Junk food this ain’t

Sam’s cuisine, Italian style

The Welsh International House of Pancakes

Good ol’ home cooking

Diner dining for dinner

More yumminess at the Tandoori

There was also one evening at the cinema – the film was much less taxing than the sign for it!

And the name of the film is…

I started the hashtag #stayinginisthenewgoingout on Twitter and, including the usage figures from today, I can see that it has caught on the way government advisors catch on to the rules they created*.

The Snail and I are privileged to be able to express our silliness in order to make this odd life we are currently experiencing a little more bearable and I hope by sharing it, it maybe makes a few people smile and perhaps inspires people to create a little silliness of their own!

I’ll have my dinner now, thanks

Next time: A mini pub crawl…

oOo

* Apologies, this is mildly passive-aggressive political satire. But I am guessing that those of you who kindly read my blog probably don’t read that of a certain Dominic Cummings or if you do, only under some kind of duress. Anyway, what I meant to convey was that no one has used the hashtag.