At Clarke’s

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To celebrate Progress’s birthday, we had our first staff lunch out last week. We chose to go to Clarke’s on Bree Street, because we’ve been hearing how good their cheeseburgers are, and because they are the first restaurant to stock our ice cream. Aside from facilitating our restaurant debut, Clarke’s also lists their suppliers on their menu, which is lovely. We’re in good company, plus it’s pretty unusual for restaurants in SA to publicly acknowledge the little guys who help them feed their customers.

We sat at the counter and watched the cooks at work in the open plan kitchen. We love seeing into other people’s kitchens, the layout and production line. We were really interested that chef-owner Lyndall cooks her burgers in frying pans and not on a griddle. As a result they were very moist, and beautifully served on flaky brioche rolls. I totally lost my head (and self0restraint) over their chips, which are made from proper, unpeeled potatoes. It’s tricky to make chips that are both really crisp and flavourful, and these were the best I’ve had in ages.

We finished our meal by sharing one of Lyndall’s pies of the day, crack pie (oatmeal cookie crust, cream filling) served, of course, with our ice cream. We went for natural, Lyndall’s recommendation, which went beautifully with the pie. We were also relieved that the ice cream was holding up well in her freezer, and was scooping nicely.  We weren’t anticipating problems, but with such a quirky product like ice cream, you never can be sure until you start supplying a restaurant and see how your product works in their setting. Phew.

The only downside to our outing was that we didn’t really want to go back to work afterwards! A nap would have been much more appropriate.

 

Kate

Kate is a company director. She spends her time on mentoring our leadership team, product development, new systems, finance, and business strategy. Her favourite ice cream flavours include raspberry choc chip, cookie dough, nectarine, jasmine blossom, toasted almond and berry cheesecake.