Inhospitality
No entry to a cafe, a tomato salad, and eating notes
Hello! My name is Rebecca May Johnson, I am a writer and cook and this is my Substack. This week’s newsletter is about a cafe, a tomato salad, and eating notes.
Inhospitality
The interior of the cafe was empty of people. It was hot in the city, and it was twenty past twelve when we lifted the pram out of the taxi. I had been concerned that the popular spot would be overrun and was delighted to see so much space, all of it. We walked in and I eyed several sites where I could put the pram without bothering other customers, should they arrive. The baby was eight weeks old and I was glad to bring her into the cool room. A member of staff emerged from the low-lit kitchen, and I began to explain S would eat lunch and I would only pause here briefly. He interrupted to say that they did not permit prams in the cafe and began shepherding us out.
We had travelled by train to London with the baby so that I could have a lunch meeting that was a big deal for me professionally. I fed the baby just before catching the train and I would feed her on the train home, and I hoped to feed her for a bit in the cafe too.
When I saw the cafe had no customers, I had been relieved not to have to grapple with a feeling of being in the way. But we discovered that we would be in the way of Nobody – and that was too much. Upset and overheated, we sat on the wooden bench outside. I put the baby across my lap and tried to feed her, but she was agitated. Our friend arrived and we explained that were not permitted inside and she sat on the opposite bench. The cafe’s only other customer, a woman at the end of our bench muttered half to herself that she had not been permitted to buy a coffee without ordering food. She was grumpily eating a bowl of chickpeas.
The man who told us about the pram rule took our orders. S ordered soup, I ordered a cold chocolate milk, and our friend ordered a coffee – she was coming to the important lunch too. I gave up on feeding the baby and handed her to my friend who was meeting her for the first time (our joy in this could not be dimmed). While we were sat there a man with a young child and pram was turned away from entering and then a woman with a pram was turned away too. When my friend and I left for the lunch appointment, there were three prams and a furious woman outside. S had intended to spend a longer stretch there, eating lunch with the baby, but after the chilly reception, left when I did. He walked round the area with the pram for an hour or so. When he passed by again the cafe was not much busier.
This was a first experience of being overtly unwelcome because of the baby. While navigating the city in this new state of parenthood we have met with challenges and also much goodwill to help us out – but this cafe, which I had previously admired, now felt purposeful in its inhospitality.
Friend’s Lunch
My friend Ed got the train to see us with a quiche in her bag. I felt nostalgic because we (me, Ed, Sam) used to run a poetry night in our flats called Sitting Room and always made quiche for guests. Today Ed wanted to make a salad too – a tomato salad – so we went to the shops while Sam and his brother looked after the baby. When we returned Sam’s brother fetched chips from Pieseas – who fry freshly chipped potatoes in beef dripping. So we had a lunch of quiche, tomato salad and chips. I loved Ed’s tomato salad and had three helpings. I asked her for the recipe and she sent me a list of ingredients and I attempted to recreate it yesterday, served with deep fried aubergines dusted with shredded fresh sage and grated parmesan. The fried aubergines were a good dupe for the chips. Ed described her tomato salad as ‘like a panzanella without the bread’.
Tomato salad
serves 4 as part of a meal
Ingredients
500g tomatoes cut into large pieces
6 anchovies cut into 1cm lengths
2 tablespoons capers
2 tablespoon black olives
2 tablespoons roasted red pepper from a jar, diced
1/2 red onion, roughly but quite finely chopped
1 small bunch of basil, torn
3 tablespoons, olive oil
1 tablespoon, wine vinegar
salt and pepper
How to make
Five minutes before serving, mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. Check the seasoning and acidity levels and adjust to taste.
Eating Notes
Breakfast with the baby and Sam’s brother who was visiting. Coffee, fried eggs and tomatoes cooked with bay leaves, mini chorizo sausages and toast. The first breakfast I have cooked and eaten at the table in a while thanks to the baby’s new bouncy chair!
Lunch at Edamame in Oxford. Fried chicken, breaded pork chop (not pictured), seaweed and cucumber salad, miso soup, burdock salad. I love this restaurant. Miniature in scale, friendly, and serving well fried chicken and great salads from the specials board. The tiny room couldn’t fit the pram but they locked it round the back so we could come in and I fed the baby on my lap while eating.
Portuguese salt cod croquettes in Oxford covered market from Brown’s cafe. Obsessed!
Crispy pig skin and smoked cod’s roe at Rochelle Canteen. Light as a feather pig’s skin and rich, smooth cod’s roe.
Egg, cavolo nero, and bacon sandwich with peperoncino. Marmelade toast. Yogurt with blueberries and hazelnuts. Tea (we had run out of coffee).
Brilliant writing. Remembering days when son aged 2 was just about transportable in push chair. Went to Turkish restaurant in Essex Road, Islington, and the owners were delighted to have him. He tottered around, crawled on the floor and people were so supportive of a newish mother
Ugh those feelings of inhospitality to a careful pram parking plan! (Meanwhile economists act baffled at the sinking birth rate…). Wonderful to see you celebrating shared meals with baby and friends. One of the best things.