After months of lockdown, punctuated with the compassion behind #ClapForCarers and diligent social distancing, girls – and boys – just wanna have fun. And while for some people that might mean the pub, for us it is a cafe. So, on the first day bars and restaurants reopened their... Read more
Another day goes by, another vegan restaurant opens. If plant-based dining in this country has spent the last few centuries cowering in the shadow of the all-conquering meat and two veg, its time has surely now come. Vegan food is out of the powdery cupboard, into your streetfood, and... Read more
It has to be one of the most idyllic inland locations for a restaurant on the Island. Nestled in a valley just outside Newport, the ancient stones of Staplehurst Grange warm in the evening sun. A long drive down a gravel track past fields of sheep, flowery hedgerows, beehives... Read more
Sometime soon, if the futurologists are to be believed, we’ll be shuttled around in driverless electric cars – our every move monitored and tagged by our robot overlords. But until that particular utopia arrives, we’ll have to make do with more prosaic ways of getting about. And, in Ryde,... Read more
On our morning commute we often go through Wootton High Street. Going through is the thing most people do with that road, and we’re no different. Since an unfortunate encounter with The Sloop a few years ago we’ve not had many reasons to change that. But recently, our interest... Read more
You must have heard us blather on about how folks on the Isle of Wight orientate themselves by where the post office used to be. One of Cat’s first experiences of being given directions followed a trail of landmarks that were no longer there; “Past where that old copper... Read more
Archive review: The Hungry Bear at St Helens has moved and is no longer open at this location. Where do you need to go to find an rhea’s egg on the Isle of Wight? A long time ago it was Fakenham Farm, in St Helen’s. The rheas are no... Read more
There was a long-standing joke the gist of which was that a meat-free diet would cause an increase in methane emissions from all the gaseous fermented bean-trumps leaching through the velvet bell-bottoms of those hippy vegans and vegetarians. Turns out that the joke’s on the other foot. Meat and... Read more
Cat’s a bit of a vegan-dabbler, although it will take a lot to turn Matt’s head away from sausages. Talking of which, we were delighted to have it further confirmed that vegan food needn’t be sawdusty fauxages. When in the supremely talented hands of Quay Arts chef Dave Holley,... Read more
There was a time when each cafe sold us the same thing, and we had to put up with it. Brutally potent tea, camp coffee, dry sandwiches and an ashtray on every table were universally understood and expected. But oh, how things have changed. On the Island a few... Read more
