#beatonsbod: Patrick who rides a white swan!

What's your role and what do you like best about your job? 

I'm Patrick and founded Beatons in 2011. Occasionally - to remind myself what we're all about - you might still see me serving customers at both Tisbury and Blandford! I most like enjoy seeing our managers and Franchise Business Owners getting excited about their businesses thriving and sharing their understanding of what fuels that - doing things 'the Beatons' Way'.

What's your favourite edible or drinkable from our menu?

I've just tested and given the thumbs up on our new Protein Rich/Low Carb Prawn and Crushed Avocado Wrap (from our Elegant Options Lunch Menu). It's tasty AND keeps me trim!

And how about your favourite book from our shelves?

Patrick Duffy,
Founder of Beatons Tearooms Group

It changes frequently because I'm always tempted by the new titles when we're selecting our 'tailored for you' curated book selection. However, right now I'm absorbing the best-selling 'Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less' by Greg McKeown so we can grow with greatest speed AND ease.

Which of the ways we like to go about things at Beatons means most to you and why? Hmm... too difficult to choose! Although our core reason for existence is to deliver 'generous value, a restorative experience and gracious hospitality with heart and passion, elegance and attentiveness', you could sum them all up with the word 'integrity'. It's the bedrock of the values based business Beatons is.

Gracious except when taking off!

If you were an animal, bird or creeping creature what would you be and why? The team will be unsurprised to hear it would be a swan.

I've used this beautiful bird's way of taking off as a metaphor for when we launch a new tearooms - a huge amount of effort and rather ungainly flapping and thrust for quite a long stretch to lift a noble bird into graceful flight! They are so elegant and yet strong too.

What - outside work - makes your skin tingle? It could be a dream, activity (printable!) or piece of music! Perhaps there's a clue in the answer to the last question... I love flight in all its forms. Getting my pilot's licence would give me a huge thrill, once we've got our first ten franchises under our belt!

If you could do one thing to change the world for the better what would it be? You'll have to settle for two:  I'd find a way to eliminate corruption from politics and shift perceptions of the hospitality and catering industries so that it was viewed like it is in France, as a serious profession.

#Blandford: Review: Celebrating The Queen's Birthday the Elegant Way

Miniature Gluten Free
Scones went down a treat!

A Beatons Tearooms' Soirée is always an elegant and sparkling affair but seldom includes 'royalty'. However, on the Queen's real birthday (21st April) The Mayor of Blandford Forum, Councillor Steve Hitchings, local business owners and some of Beatons Blandford's most regular customers welcomed a very regal June King from Upton as their Guest of Honour at Beatons for its 'Scones, Thrones and Ninety Milestones' celebration.

June King, Beatons Blandford's  'Alice for the Evening'
arrives in  style in an open topped Bentley

June acted as 'Alice' - the character referred to in the specially composed song for the evening - set to the music of 'They're Changing the Guards at Buckingham Palace'. The team thought it would be great to have a real life 90 year old 'Alice' for the song to be sung to! Link to the full lyrics of the song being sung here. June was nominated by her mother, Mandy Clement-Doble when the tearooms appealed to the local press (who were magnificent in spreading the word and covering the event) to help them find 'an Alice' turning ninety, like the Queen.

June may not be an Alice but is a somewhat of a celebrity in her own right, having been a Dorset resident all her life, have written a book 'Memories of a Dorset Parish' and still be giving talks on aspects of the county such as 'Dorset Buttons!' She made a great 'Alice for the evening' and even arrived in style in an open topped Bentley lent through Philip Palmer of FarmerPalmers near Poole, before being shown to her 'throne', a beautiful pink ribboned rocking chair kindly lent by neighbouring Mandy Ford and Lisa Douglas, co-owners of 4ever Vintage.

After a few words of welcome, 'Alice' and over sixty guests listened to girls from Blandford's Performing Arts Theatre Academy perform the piece before toasting the real Queen. Throughout the evening, local saxophonist Wendy Allen played a relaxing set of jazz classics.

However, perhaps the real stars of the show were the miniature cream tea gluten free scones, painstakingly created by Ben Moxham (Beatons Blandford Manager and Chief Recipe Creator for the group). Ben admitted perfecting their crumbly texture had been an extended 'labour of love'! Already being previewed at Beatons Blandford, they form part of the Gracious and Gloriously Gluten Free High Tea on the Beatons Elegant Options Menu launched that evening for those with different dietary desires. 

Note! It will be available in all Beatons Tearooms from Monday 9th May... read more on our menu for those with special dietary desires.

We hope these comments give you a taster of the evening and that you'll come in and try our Elegant Options Menu - or indeed our classic menus which change throughout the day - soon!

'We had a ball and were quite in awe!!' Mandy Clement-Doble and family

'Just a quick email to say how much we enjoyed last night’s soiree, and we wish you all the best with the new menu! It was delicious.' Kathyrn Clark, Lesley Shand Funeral Service

With thanks to our local press and for more detail take a look at and check out Dorset Society magazine next month!

http://www.blackmorevale.co.uk/Blandford-tea-rooms-welcome-guest-honour-Queen-s/story-29168020-detail/story.html

http://www.theftr.co.uk/mrs-king-is-queen-for-a-day/

#Blandford: Queen's 90th Birthday Celebration

Happy faces getting ready to sing
The Tables Are Laid at a Blandford Tea Palace

We know it was a bit tricky for our guests to hear all the lyrics of our song for The Queen on her real birthday - clinking glasses and whispers from the back! We thought we'd put them up for you to enjoy reading (or singing in your head!).  For the full story of our Celebration Soirée click here.

With thanks to Sam Ryall (keyboards) and Rebecca Hollands (Principal) Blandford's Performing Arts Theatre Academy.

'The Tables Are Laid at a Blandford Tea Palace'

The tables are laid at a Blandford tea palace'

To honor a monarch like A A Milne's Alice

Meet sweet Dorset ladies who are ninety years young

And others whose lives have barely begun... at this palace

Tea's being served at this elegant palace

'They've portraits of royalty too', whispers Alice

'I'd love to be photographed what do you think?

Then framed and hung against deep fushia pink' ... in this palace

The Signals are marching down to this palace

We bet there's a Christopher, Robin and Alice

For Beatons has food for the military

And options that even include gluten-free! ... at its palace

Everyone cheer and raise your glass chalice

Wish The Queen many more years in her palace!

Then lashings of tea and jam, cake and scones

Celebrate those who've reached ninety milestones... at this palace...

at this palace... at this palace...

  

© Liz Darcy Jones

#tea: benefits which are more than skin deep!

I'm not usually a fan of fruit teas (sometimes I find them a little insipid or too sweet). Not so this tea - Strawberry and Kiwi. It's got a lot more to it than just strawberry and kiwi pieces: add in apple, rosehips and Hibiscus petals to make it the perfect choice for those who are looking for a healthy tea to make their skin glow and even lower high blood pressure or cholesterol!

It also tastes really fruity. The sweetness of the strawberry and rosehip is offset by the distinctive slightly tart flavour of the Hibiscus petals.

It's never too early to try an iced tea!

As for health benefits?

What better tea than this for your skin? It's packed full of vitamins C and A - great for skin. Hibiscus is also reputed to add to the skin's elasticity, and kiwi fruits have a rare fat free form of vitamin E in their make up...

For the growing number of customers who are looking to eat healthily as well as indulgently, this tea will be a perfect match for items on our 'Elegant Options'  menu. What is it? We're talking Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, High Protein/Low Carb and Vegan adaptations of some of our favourite current menu items.

Makes life sound like a bowl of... strawberries, doesn't it?

Liz

Beatons Central

#beatonstearooms: Trend - curation on the High Street

A sign of the past or
herald of an offline focused future?

It's not often people write glowing posts about their competitors. But I was commissioned to write this by Patrick Duffy, a remarkable man whose generous spirit is mirrored by fellow new-to-the-book-world owner of bookshop Libreria and uber cool technology lover, Rohan Silva. It's no surprise they both wish each other and other similar bookshops well, booksellers are an old fashioned breed steeped in good manners and generosity.

[Truth is, I didn't even need to be asked to write this after listening to Rohan Silva on Radio 4's Open Book on 19th February having heard him say, 'I think we're going to see a real renaissance of physical books, of reading and of bookshops in the coming years...']

Simple secret, devilishly difficult to deliver. It transpires that both Silva and Duffy have discovered a secret which puts a blue ocean between each other and their competitors: the art of a cannily curated book selection. More to the point how it's offered matters as much as what is offered. It produces something as delicious as Beatons' carrot cake and (unlike the recipe for that) Silva and Duffy happy to share their strategy.

Rohan Silva, co-owner with Sam Alderton (also of Second Home), have only recently opened Libreria in London's trendy Brick Lane. It's a bookshop with a bar which bars mobile phones. Patrick Duffy, Founder and MD of Beatons Tearooms and Bookshop group has been successfully serving up tea and books for the past five years in his Cecil Beaton  inspired interiors, oozing taste and gracious hospitality. It accepts mobile devices and wi-fi but encourages its customers to switch off, pause and relax [more].

So why would selling a smaller collection of books which are not even discounted work?

Four common elements underpin Silva and Duffy's strategy, the last of which may be startling enough to cause the likes of Amazon to sweat a little because it can't be mimicked online.

1. Audience, Ambiance and Location Match
   Crystal clear about their respective audiences, these new kinds of bookshops locate their shops where their audience want to hang out. Not exactly rocket science but precision is key. They're also attentive to the smallest detail in getting the ambiance right... As Philip Jones in The Bookseller Online said, 'it seems we are now entering the period of the "designer bookshop", shops defined... not by size, ownership... but by how it feels to step inside them'. 
   
   
2. Out with Algorithms
   Whereas Google and Amazon (and even to a lesser extent Goodreads) will recommend what they think we want, a smaller, carefully physically curated selection allows for serendipity and the senses to play their natural part. Silva has spotted this is not just something for Beatons' largely 50+ hungry market but for Millennials too. '... people are really craving, in the age of algorithms that say 'you're going to like this if you like that' that are very narrow and recursive, people really crave genuine serendipity and discovery and that's what great physical bookshops do and we're celebrating that.'
   
   
3. Books, Beverages and Literature Go Together...
   ... like scones and jam! This isn't a new idea. Indeed as I write this Austrian Coffeehouse group Julius Meinl who claim to have been inspiring poets since 1862 are serving up coffee on World Poetry Day for which you can pay by poem! Beatons gives away free poem postcards and commissions one for each new tearooms as it opens, Libreria boasts a working printing press. But when it comes to beverages, again, it's all about matching book-buyer to beverage. Silva has a bar, Beatons has loose-leaf teas, Italian coffees and iced sodas in Villeroy & Boch bespoke china.
   
   
4. Recognition of the 'Slow Offline Migration'
   This is where the likes of Amazon and other online outlets are necessarily caught in the red sea of sharks gnashing their teeth over price. Sure, some on the High Street will spy a book and buy it cheaper online at home. But places like Libreria and Beatons speak to humanity's innate integrity (in fact Beatons Blandford Forum will even give you your parking money back if you tell them you paid for it). The press quoted Silva as saying drinks would come free (I haven't tested this yet and hesitate to mention it, but the spirit - excuse  the pun - is there). And of course, the startling bit is that Silva believes that Millennials don't want to be slaves to their screen. In fact, he's tested that at Second Home, where he's created a hanging garden area in which electronic devices are banned.
   
   
   As Alex Clark in the Guardian said in his review, 'And there's this growing awareness, quite mainstream now in this community, that being in front of your screen the whole time, being plugged into digital technology the whole time, isn't great for your happiness or your creativity.'  This is something Duffy and the large portion of Beatons' regulars have known for years and may account for the sense of warmth and conviviality of the tearooms.

But what might this mean for the High Street? What might this mean for society? Is it conceivable that the Millennials of today might be the parents of the shopkeepers of tomorrow? Might word of mouth move from Facebook back to face to face? I wonder whether on Twitter's twentieth birthday (today is its tenth) we'll be back to referring to our feathered friends when we talk of tweets!

Perhaps not my lifetime, but in the meantime, as Silva said, 'Bookshops that offer something different are thriving.'   

As an author who refuses to publish any of her future books in e-format in the future, I'll raise a cup Beatons Brew to that!

Liz Darcy Jones, 21st March 2016
Non-Executive Director & House Poet

#Blandford: High Sheriff Salutes 'Busy Blandford'

Beaming Amy with guests
at Blandford's Corn Exchange

Occasionally we go out of our tearooms home... and here we are at The Corn Exchange, Blandford. As part of our community involvement, we're always willing to lend a helping hand. So, along with lots of other Blandford businesses we were part of a fabulous evening reception on Thursday 11th March. It was a huge turn out! Showcasing the town's businesses and community activities, in the presence of the High Sheriff and in aid of The Corn Exchange's refurbishment, 163 people came and tasted, sipped and sampled what 'Busy Blandford' has to offer...

We provided a free taste of gracious hospitality as we served miniature scones, finger sandwiches and our famous carrot cake from our pretty tiered afternoon tea stands.

Zoe and Amy
and tiers of elegant edibles!

It was a splendid evening and great to be reminded of all the independent businesses that populate Blandford's beautiful Georgian streets.

Seems it reminded many of the guests about where we are in the Market Place too - thanks to all who've visited us since. See you again soon!

Ben

Manager, Beatons Blandford

#tea: add zest to look at your best!

Beatons Lemon and Lime Green Tea ~ Made for Spring!

What is it?
Lemon and Lime Green Tea - will add some zing to your step and help you lose weight!

It's not only a refreshing Sencha green tea from Hunan Province in China but it becomes more than the sum of its parts - so you can become less than the sum of your parts... It's a real waist-watcher's friend.

A number of studies show that when you add lemon and/or lime the strength of Green Tea increases dramatically. And there's quite a body of research which suggests Green Tea is effective in helping weight loss:

• The polyphenols help burn fat, and may even block the conversion of calories into fat
  
  
• Green tea also attacks fat because of the amino acid it contains: L-theanine. This calms you down and helps reduce stress-related surges in cortisol which is linked to fat which is stored round the stomach area. So as you de-stress, weight falls off... we literally lighten up! [We know you'll already be relaxed simply by being inside our tearooms, but there's nothing like feeling you're imbibing liquid stress-relief.]

© Dana Rothstein | Dreamstime Stock Photos

However, the real extra boost is what happens when you add lemons or citrus to the tea! Research by Purdue University research has found that adding citrus juice or vitamin C to green tea increases the amount of antioxidants available for the body to absorb by more than five times.

March winds may blow
But we'll drink our tea slow
And love that fresh taste
Which reduces our waist!

Let us know what you think of the balance of this sweet green tea balanced with the astringent citrus tang. We love it!