The Dying Detective: Restaurant Review

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Canon Story: The Dying Detective
Title: Restaurant Review (as featured in the Marylebone Illustrated)
Author:thesmallhobbit
Rating: G

For readers seeking an excellent dining experience we would heartily recommend Simpson’s on the Strand.  Originally opened as a chess club and coffee house, the restaurant provides nothing but the highest quality British meat for all its guests.  Indeed the diners’ choice of large joint is brought to the table on a silver platter to be carved in their presence.

Comments

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

I googled it trying to see an example of a Victorian menu, trying to imagine what they would have eaten. Maybe a joint on a silver platter.

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

From what I can tell from looking at the History page on the restaurant's website they've been serving basically the same food in the same way from Victorian times.

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Really? Wow!

[godsdaisiechain.livejournal.com]

Great! That means my research "trip" (via Google) was not totally silly.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

"...and some pork chops for the vegetarians." (Sorry - a favourite line from I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue's version of A Christmas Carol :P)

It sounds delightful ^^ I commend the writer for their journalistic research and let us hope Mr. Holmes will soon be well enough to go to Simpson's for a meal. (Accompanied by Watson and Mrs. Hudson - Mr. Holmes will be paying. Over and over again.)

[godsdaisiechain.livejournal.com]

Pork is excellent for vegetarians.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

This vegetarian would disagree :P

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

In which case we recommend the pork chops and vegetables without the pork chops ;)

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Or like my family says, "It only has a LITTLE bit of meat..."

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

There are people like that in my extended family too... *thinks dark thoughts*

[godsdaisiechain.livejournal.com]

Right... because if you cut foods up very, very tiny, they turn into other things entirely

[godsdaisiechain.livejournal.com]

Sorry... I have a number of vegetarian friends who assert on occasion that bacon is a vegetable.

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

The writer had a very enjoyable evening. And no doubt Mr Holmes and Dr Watson will do so too (at some point in the future when matters have blown over).

[debriswoman]

Excellent:-)

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[godsdaisiechain.livejournal.com]

This is quite splendid.

I do confess to borrowing items from the current Simpson's menu for my little piece (I also wondered if lobster had graduated to fine dining by 1916, but I suspect it may have.)

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

I believe there was lobster available, but the reviewer is not fond of crustacean.

[godsdaisiechain.livejournal.com]

I'm from the US where the lobster didn't get fancy until much later than it did in England, so my whole premise might be off.

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

I have discovered the existence of Victorian silver lobster picks, so I think we can safely conclude it was served in posh restaurants. Probably, as with all things, it depended on how easy it was to source lobsters.

[godsdaisiechain.livejournal.com]

You are wise in the ways of science.