The First Viewing

Have you ever been in that situation in a restaurant or at a function, when your dessert arrives and it looks gorgeous but then you come to eat it and it is a complete let down?

Well, it seems to happen to me quite regularly, but that could just be because I'm quite hard to please when it comes to desserts! For example, it happened last night at a ball I was at - dessert arrived and it looked amazing, it was a plate of chocolaty goodness! And then, I put my spoon into it and found that rather than a lovely chocolate pudding, it was full of jelly - who thought that was a good idea?!

It was a feeling like this that I got when I went to my first viewing of potential premises in a town close to where I live. From the blurb from the estate agents it seemed so promising, it was in a relatively good location, it wasn't a bad size, it even stated it was an excellent opportunity for a first time business. Brilliant, I thought, must go and see what its like. Off I went with my parents in tow (two extra minds are always going to be a good thing), full of youthful optimism, I pushed open the door...and stopped dead in my tracks.

The smell of greasy, fried food, the kind of smell that clings to everything and never seems to go away once its there, was the first thing I noticed. Maybe this place wasn't going to be as ideal as it first seemed! Speaking to the owner didn't make things any better. She classed the place as "a greasy spoon that served the people that were lovely but who you might avoid if you actually saw them on the street" - it didn't fill me with much glee, or in fact any glee! Things weren't really going as I had thought they would! Add this to water dripping through the ceiling and accounts that showed the business was losing money rather than making it, and things were going from bad to worse!

The final nail in the coffin was when I was given the 'grand tour' and taken into the kitchen - a term that should be used loosely in this case - and found that they had four microwaves and two deep-fat fryers, but no oven...

No one ever said this was going to be easy! I suppose the moral of this story is never to make an assumption - just because it looks good on the outside does not mean its going to be! Hopefully the next place I view (on Monday) will be slightly more promising, but I might go with a slightly less optimistic out-look!

So, next time you're served the perfect looking dessert be wary of what might be lurking within!

Kate 

xxx