LATEST ON THE DECORATING .............

Well....... the decorating's started - and it's already finished in the smaller groundfloor room.       We love it  - and we hope you will too.
Tomorrow sees the first half of the larger room being done - and, hopefully,  by next Monday it'll all be finished !!

As ever, one thing leads to another and, after seeing our 'new' dining rooms,  we're now redesigning the menus - but, don't worry, we're only changing the way we present them - not the food !!  You'll see them when the June menu starts next Tuesday  -  4th June.

Don't forget our live Jazz, this Tuesday, 28th May.
We've got Jeremy Sassoon on keyboards ( and of course, vocals ) with Richard Hammond, one of the most 'in demand' bass players in the North West.   It's a brilliant line up so don't miss it.  We're already quite busy that night, but we've a few tables left. Ring us after 12 midday on Tuesday ( 0161 788 7343 ) to book your table

And as if you needed any persuasion, here's part of LondonJazz's review of Jeremy's gig at Ronnie Scott's Club  " Sassoon is a charming and witty front-man, one of his skills being that he can make the audience feel immediately at ease, applaud wildly for each tune and soak up the infectious feel-good vibe. Vocally, the highlights were a raw, aching You Don’t Know Me, and Bye Bye Love,   but Sassoon is also a skilled writer, and is showcasing a number of new compositions "

GOOD NEWS  !!

We've decided on the colours ( though not without some ' healthy debate ' )  and the re decorating is starting tomorrow !! 

Over the next three Mondays we'll be changing the image of Smiths' ground floor dining room - so don't be surprised if you come in over the next couple of weeks and see a strange combination of styles as the decorators finish their work. We're doing it this way so we don't have to close for a few days in order to finish it all in one go...... so forgive us the mix of colours etc till it's done. Hopefully, you'll like the end result !

One downside: Because he has just one day for each section, the decorator wants to start at 7am  ...... and that means that someone has to be there to let him in. Now those of you who work 'normal' hours may be more than happy to get up at 6.30 in the morning, but in the restaurant world ( unless you're off to market every morning ) this is ridiculously early - in fact, we hadn't realised till now that there were two 7 o'clocks in a day !  Dave's drawn the short straw and is gearing up for the early start tomorrow.  But it'll be worth it in the long run  
( I know. It's easy for me to say that. I'm not the one getting up at 6.30am ........  )

ANY COLOUR AS LONG AS IT'S NOT BLACK ......

 

It's got a bit giddy at Smiths today.

We're making the final decision about the colours we're going to use to redecorate the dining rooms.  For weeks we've been surrounded by large pieces of card painted in various shades,  mini pots of paint and a boxful of multi coloured strips in varying tones.  We've held the pieces of card against every wall, in all weathers and in every possible combination then, every time we thought we'd found exactly the right combination of colours, someone would have a niggling doubt and we'd start again.     

BUT 

Today we finally narrowed it down to the final three.............a bit like the Apprentice except that the paints are easier to work with. The Apprentices are an odd bunch this year aren't they ?   Especially, though it grieves me deeply to say it, the women -  who seem to take great delight in tearing into each other to shift the blame for every failure.

ANYWAY

Back to the redecoration. Well be doing it on Mondays and we're hoping to start next week. It's quite a big job but spreading it over a few Mondays means we don't have to close down even for a day or so.  With a bit of luck we'll have chosen the winning paint by the end of today  - and in a few weeks you'll see a bright new dining room in time for the Summer. The downstairs dining room's going to have to wait a little longer as we've not even decided on the long list of colours yet !

I've always collected / written down quotes that take my fancy and I found a couple of 'colourful' ones ( from more years ago than I like to think ! )  

This from Jack Kerouac's 'On the Road'

“Soon it got dusk, a grapy dusk, a purple dusk over tangerine groves and long melon fields; the sun the color of pressed grapes, slashed with burgundy red, the fields the color of love and Spanish mysteries.” 

And this, the arrival of the lightning conductor salesman, from " Something Wicked This Way Comes "  by Ray Bradbury 

"The salesman walked about three feet, stopped and hunched his shoulders.

'Howdy, boys!'  called the man all dressed in stormcolored clothes. 'Folks home?'
The salesman edged slowly up the lawn.   'Boy' he said. 'What's your name?'   And the first boy, with hair as blond-white as milk thistle, shut up one eye, tilted his head, and looked at the salesman.    'Will,'  he said.  'William Halloway'      The storm gentleman turned. 'And you?'    The second boy did not move. His hair was wild, thick, and the glossy color of waxed chestnuts. His eyes, fixed to some distant point within himself, were mint rock-crystal green. At last he put a blade of dry grass in his casual mouth.       'Jim Nightshade'  "

And I thought........   If only we had Ray Bradbury and Jack Kerouac here right now, we'd know exactly which colours we wanted. Though I'm not sure, despite the weird and wonderful names of paints, that even Dulux stocks   'Love and Spanish Mysteries'   .....

JAZZ AT SMITHS TUESDAY 14th MAY

Smiths has been proud to bring you some of the region's finest musicians for almost fifteen years, Jeremy Sassoon's longest residency... and at no extra cost to our customers.  Pay for your meals and drinks, the jazz comes free -  and that's not something you'd find everywhere these days !  
When we first started, Jeremy played keyboards ( that's after he qualified and practiced as a doctor ! )   but, since then, he's discovered that he can sing as well as he can play, and on Tues 14th May you can hear him with Tim France on sax - a fine duo not to be missed.

Click here to go to Jeremy's website and hear him sing and play 

and here to listen to Tim on YouTube

THEN ........ 

Ring us on 0161 788 7343 and book your table to hear them at Smiths on Tues 14th May !! 

TABLES FROM 7.15PM .... jAZZ FROM 7.30PM

OLGA, BORIS & GREGORI ARE HERE......and they're all keyed up for tonight's Bite Size Theatre performance of 'VOLGA OLGA'.
Boris' choice of Russian Music is a little bizarre to say the least - and Olga looks less than pleased with him. Only time will tell how she gets her own back !
The audience have started to arrive and are at their tables waiting for dinner to be served before Boris finds his way to the dining room and interrupts their meal.

All in all it looks like it's going to be an interesting night !!

( Follow this blog and find out about Smiths' next Bite Size Theatre production in the Autumn .... or maybe we'll have time to squeeze another production in before the Summer starts )

 .....AND ALL THAT JAZZ

Don't forget, you can hear live jazz from the region's finest musicians, every Tuesday evening at Smiths. Tables are available from 7.15pm and the jazz starts at 7.30pm.
Pay the normal menu prices for meals and drinks and the jazz comes free  ......what more could you want !!

Ring us on 0161 788 7343 to book your table now.

MAY LISTINGS:

Tuesday 7th      John Ellis ( keys / vocals )  and Pete Turner ( bass )

Tuesday 14th    Jeremy Sassoon ( vocs / keys )  and Tim France ( sax )

Tuesday 21st    Jeremy Sassoon ( vocs / keys )  and Marek Dorcik ( drums )

Tuesday 28th   Jeremy Sassoon ( vocs / keys )  and Richard Hammond ( bass )


If you're not a regular at Smiths' Jazz nights, you may be wondering   " who's this Jeremy Sassoon, whose name appears all over the listings? " Well, he's the man who started it all  nearly 15 years ago just after we opened, his longest restaurant residency. First spotted by Dave at The Nose in Wilmslow ( with John Ellis who's playing at Smiths on Tuesday 7th ) Jem was soon snapped up by Smiths and .... well.... the rest is history as they say.
If you want to find out more about him and listen to his music, click here  to be taken to his website. It's worth a few minutes of anyone's time !

See you there

HAPPY MAY DAY !!

......  and as May arrives, so does our May menu. A bit earlier than usual but just as welcome.  To see a copy on our website click   MAY MENU      Have a look at it, decide what you'd like to eat, remember what Julia Child said  " People who love to eat are always the best people ",  ring us on 0161 788 7343 to book your table  - and join the best people here !!

P.S.   I'm hearing rumours of a winetasting in the offing. Sounds very exciting  - more news when they let me in on the secret !

Elaine