» Food: Bill’s thrills
Andrew Kay pretends to get healthy with a breakfast at old favourite, Bill’s
Bill’s is an institution; a place of pilgrimage and a huge business success. The word is that it is about to go global – well, national at least – and good luck to them. I popped in for breakfast, my favourite time to visit, and the lovely waiter happily informed me that sites have already been secured in Horsham – which will open in a few months time – and also in Reading. Who would have thought that such success could be sparked by that terrible Lewes flood?
Bill’s in Lewes has to be my favourite. It was the first and attracts a fantastic crowd of very mixed clients. If ever I I am over there I invent a reason to pop in, even if it is just to do a spot of light shopping. Of course, by light I mean luxurious, as I can seldom resist the goods on offer.
I had a job as a teenager in the local greengrocers and, as good as it was back then, it was never like this: such variety, so many delicious choices and great old fashioned deli goods, bottled fruits, exquisite conserves. It comes pretty close as a shopping experience to my favourite, which is the food hall at Fortnum & Mason in London’s Piccadilly.
Not long ago I was in Lewes and felt the draw. Before I knew it I was tucking into a rarebit of quality, properly made and packing a hefty punch, and all grilled on really good bread. Rarebit is a fabulous dish, but too often is badly represented by lazy establishments who think that to toast a slice of cheese is enough. It is not.
Mr R, with me on that occasion, had the appetite for a full English. It’s a monster of a meal at Bill’s and built of extremely high quality parts. Too much for my delicate constitution that day, but I have been known to do more than justice to its magnificence.
My second favourite meal at Bill’s is the steak sandwich, a very good lunch for those of us with a hearty appetite and, given the quality of the ingredients, not overly expensive. It’s not always on the menu; I know that because as I type this in I’m in the Brighton branch and can see that it is missing. There are plenty of other tempting choices though: risottos, quiches and the like. Oh I know, quiche can be so wet, but I can vouch for Bill’s quiches, as I also can for the well-made cakes that are so terribly tempting.
I am, however, having the most healthy of breakfasts today; well, fairly healthy. I have chosen a bowl of fruit salad with yoghurt and pumpkin seeds. I ask the waiter if she can make sure that there is no devil food, by which I mean pineapple, and she assures me that this is no problem.
Pretty soon I have a massive soup plate of freshly made fruit salad with no trace of pineapple being there or having ever been there. How good of them to accommodate my faddy request. Lesser joints might simply have attempted to pick it out, but this tasted for all the world like it had been made to order. The yoghurt, too, was good, thick and creamy in the Greek style and, in hindsight, perhaps not as healthy as I would have liked it to be, but what the heck.
As for pumpkin seeds, I love them, but you do need to chew. I recently read that no amount of seeds of any kind will have any healthy benefits unless you give them a good chew, and chewing we are not doing. I chewed away in the hope that the efficacy would be increased. I did, however, spoil the healthiness of the whole by downing two piping hot lattes, both of which came with a small temptation in the form of a cube of chocolate brownie. Delicious but very naughty – you need to be so careful or you can find yourself taking away cakes simply by suggestion.
Friends may tell you that I complain about Bill’s. I do. But it’s not the place I dislike, but the fact that it is so successful that at lunchtime it has become hard to find a seat and to negotiate the number of buggies that are there. The food, however, is always good, always fresh and always tasty. It’s a real temptation, one that I can confirm as I see a chef placing two glorious looking cakes in the cabinet, one decorated with strawberries and bay leaves, and the other with daffodils and sprigs of rosemary. All is left for me is to pay the bill: £8.60 for a huge fruit salad and two excellent coffees.
Bill’s, 56 Cliffe High Street, Lewes, East Sussex, BN7 2AN, 01273 476918
Bill’s, The Depot, 100 North Road, Brighton, BN1 1YE, 01273 692894
www.billsproducestore.co.uk
