The Best Pizza in the World

I have eaten many a pizza over the years and a fair few more just lately but I can now say that I have tasted the world's best pizza.  On a recent trip to Melbourne Roger and I made it our mission to try the award winning Margherita pizza at 400 Gradi in Lygon Street.

Comparing it to a Blue Bird pizza is like comparing apples with oranges and we won't even go there but we did feel that our pizza stacked up well in the general pizza arena.  What we did really enjoy about 400 Gradi was the experience of sitting at the bar to watch the experts at work and soaking up in some small way, their skills.  The restaurant had a lively atmosphere and the staff were very professional but warm in their service.  We definitely recommend the food and the experience.

Milestones and Rewards

Any one in business will be familiar with the highs and lows that go with the responsibility of being your own boss.  At times you doubt having made the right choice taking the plunge from safe employment into the deep blue something.  Sometimes you fear that you might not have the stamina to stick at it when the growing bills are spread across the floor.  And then the next day you get up and don your rose-coloured glasses to look upon the hardship as the pain that will make the eventual pleasure seem all the more worthwhile.  Somewhere deep inside you find the strength to hold on to your dream.

And then every once in a while you get a boost, a reassurance that your cock-eyed optimistic belief in yourself and your vision for the future, has validity.  This week we have had an all important milestone boost.  I am proud to say that, after entering the 2014 Inland Tourism Awards, The Blue Bird Cafe has been selected as a finalist in the Heritage and Culture category.  There is plenty of competition out there so we feel very proud to be in the running.

I entered the cafe in order to boost our morale and found, as I filled in the extensive application, that it made me take stock of where we are now, two years after deciding to take on this outrageous adventure, as well as how far we have come.  I revisited our original business case and updated it to reflect all that we have learned about the practicalities of the hospitality trade and running a business.  I reassessed our business risks and our mission statement.  Our mission has become more eloquent over time but I am as charmed by it today as I was in the beginning.  And most importantly, the process of writing the award submission allowed us both to take a moment to dream.  We put all of our crazy blue sky ideas for the future down onto one piece of paper and looked at the shape our business could one day take.

It is all too easy to get bogged down in the day to day.  The routine of getting up and making pies each morning, the demands of the lunch and dinner time rushes.  Over time Roger and I seem to have managed to split ourselves into about three people each with six sets of hands.  It astounds me at how quickly the necessity of adapt and survive has made us efficient.  We approached the cafe two years ago with oodles of combined life experience and practical skills that we knew we could adapt to the specifics we would need.  Such is the enthusiasm of the optimist and it is surprising how quickly you do just that...adapt.

So when we heard that we were to get a site visit from a regional judge, we were chuffed (Roger is going to roll his eyes at me for using that word).  As I pressed the 'send' button on the original application, I remarked to him:  "Ah well, I have no idea if we have what they are looking for but it's worth giving it a go".  The site inspection was the morale boost we needed to take the next step forward.  I know that I spent the day of the inspection floating on a high, knowing that we had "done ourselves proud" in presenting The Blue Bird at its best.  Well, our best for the moment that is because The Blue Bird, Roger and I are still works in progress.  We work hard every day and it is fantastic to have made it this far in the award process and to be receiving some external recognition for what we have done as well as what we are still to do.  Both sets of parents, family and close friends have supported us with encouragement, sometimes physical assistance and always tenacious believe in us but at the end of the day it is Roger and I who struggle together through the tough bits.  We laugh when crying would get us nowhere and balance each other's downs with an up.

We now have to wait until the awards night on 26th July to see what happens so cross your fingers for us and watch this space.

Winter is Finally Here!

I wish that I could post beautiful pictures of snowy scenes in Lockhart because I have this theory that you can't take a bad photograph of snow.  It is too picturesque and photogenic from every angle but alas, it doesn't snow in Lockhart.  We have to make do with frost.

However, winter has arrived at last and I was holding off releasing the Blue Bird's winter menu 2014 until the weather was more conducive to warming soups and roasts.  I am now delighted to at last be able to say that our winter menu has kicked in and here are a few tempting morsels from it.

Soup every day served with home made ciabatta bread.  So far I have made the good old favourite from last year, Pumpkin and Sweet Potato Soup and Rich Creamy Tomato (not your average tomato but our secret recipe).  A new flavour tried out this weekend, Creamy Corn, went down well with a couple of corn lovers.  The weather was so icy over this weekend just gone that I had all three varieties on the menu.

Pies, pie, pies!  Home made, of course.  The flavours vary but the warming spicy aromatics of the Moroccan Chicken have been gobbled up and the traditional Roast Lamb Dinner with peas and potatoes included as part of the pie are satisfying appetites.

Home made Lasagna is coming into its own as hearty hot food is preferred over light summery meals and the spicy kick of our new pan-fried Mexican Burrito filled with chilli rice, beef, capsicum and corn offers that warming feeling from the inside out.

Beyond the Cafe

A trip to Lockhart promises visitors more than The Blue Bird.  Known as The Verandah Town, an active Progress Association, Shire Council and many community groups have contributed countless initiatives over the years dedicated to the beautification and well-being of the township.  Lockhart town and Lockhart Shire remain proudly independent from larger municipalities and although Wagga Wagga is only 60kms, the town of Lockhart has everything it needs to be strong and vibrant.  Here are some of the things you could discover on your trip to Lockhart.

The Doris Golder Gallery - Without spoiling the surprise, the intricately detailed and unique art of our lovely local octagenarian Doris, is something to behold.  Not many towns can claim to have someone as talented in creating woolen portraiture so Lockhart is fortunate.  Doris still lives just around the corner and is one of the regular customers brightening The Blue Bird's day.  After admiring her work at the museum, and if you are lucky, you might find her here having an ice cream with us.  Doris will happily tell you about her life and work and it makes quite a story.

The Spirit of the Land Festival and Sculptures - During the recent ten year drought some creative locals were inspired to offer depressed farmers something to take their mind off the devastation.  The National Farm Art Sculpture competition began and subsequently launched new careers for a few farmers who turned their versatile hands to sculpting.  A generous  annual sponsorship from the Lockhart Shire Council has ensured that most of the winning sculptures have stayed in town to become part of a farm art sculpture trail.  The Spirit of the Land Festival held on the second weekend of October each year, has become a major attraction.

The Pastoral Shadows of Brookong - On the outskirts of town, this gentle walk tells the story of the settlement of Lockhart.  It features silhouettes of swagmen, wagons, coaches, shepherds and other tableaux displaying rural life in old Australia.  Local artists and members of the Men's Shed have cut the silhouette sculptures out of iron and other scrap metals.

The Heritage Pavers - The Progress Association initiated this project as an indelible and charming way to record the names and dates of local families.  The names are etched on the paving stones forming a walk under the verandahs of the main street.  Ambling passed the shops on Green Street you can read the story of the people who built Lockhart a century ago, their descendants and many new families who now live in town.  A book expanding on these brick sketches can be purchased at the Greens Gunyah Museum.

Green Street - A number of interesting shops stand as neighbours to The Blue Bird on Green Street.  Heaven in Rags is a store that captures a distant era of clothing, haberdashery, millinery and shoes.  Ginge and Fluffs Second-hand Shop offers everything collectible from your childhood to good china.  The Lockhart Men's Shed sells handcrafted wooden furniture and toys made by the blokes in the shed.  The Brookong Nook Craft Shop is an outlet for local producers of jams, pickles and chutneys, free-range eggs and hand crafts.  The Red Cross Op-Shop is located in the building that started out as The Lockhart Hotel.  If you look closely at the stained glass window above its door you can see the remnants of one of its past lives as The Monterey Cafe.  And then of course The Blue Bird is more than just a cafe these days.  We operate a quality second-hand book shop within our business as well as a line of retro craft.  We have plans to expand our Blue Bird museum into one preserving the heritage of the Greek-Australian Cafes.

There is plenty more of Lockhart beyond the cafe.

Little Cloey

Roger and I are welcoming a new addition to our cafe family, CLOey.  CLOey is a Closed Loop Organic composting unit.  We invested in her (yes, you can't help but anthropomorph it into an employee, and one of the hardest working I might add) in order reduce overall waste in the cafe industry and also to manage our waste cleanly and efficiently.  CLOey is a very neat and tidy compost bin and she will happily chomp her way through vegetable, meat and bones all day long.  She gurgles, beeps and whirs gently and because her digestive system is temperature controlled, in 24 hours, she produces amazingly rich, dry fertilizer that is as powerful as chook manure.  We already have a few people around town lined up for CLOey's product and we are happy to share.

These compost units are all the rage in city cafes that are striving to be zero waste businesses.  They have industrial CLOeys but we only needed a domestic version because we do not generate as much waste as I imagine they do.  However, it's a start and we feel happy that not only are we using our cafe scraps and leftovers wisely on behalf of our customers, but we are also keeping our kitchen clean and hygenic.

Cross Buns and Custard

Easter has passed for another year and it was a busy one for us at the Blue Bird.  We had visitors from all over the state and others stopping by on their way to Confest and the Deni Blues and Roots Festival.  Happy, excited fresh people stopped in for grateful refreshment on Friday afternoon and not so fresh, tired, hungover people dragged themselves in for nourishment and a pick-me-up on the way back on Monday.  It was exhausting but as everyone was happy to see us open and appreciative of the atmosphere, enjoyable for us.

I made Hot Cross Buns and they turned out really well.  There is nothing like the smell of cooking fruit buns or the softness of one that is truly hot and fresh out of the oven.  I made a few dozen to fill family orders around town and next year I will definitely do that again.  They take a long time to make but I pretty much have them down to an art now.

And I am also venturing out into the hallowed Custard Slice territory.  Roger calls them snot blocks but that is unkind, a good custard slice is a thing of beauty as I'm sure any connoisseurs out there among you will agree.  It is the creamy but firmness of the custard, the subtle flavour of vanilla  in the custard and the sweetness (but not too sweet) of the vanilla icing that makes a seriously good custard slice.  I am giving it a good go so try one next time you are in.  At the moment they are a limited edition item on our menu so you will need to be in early to get hold of one.

A piece of crumpet

When was the last time that you had a home-made crumpet?  Not a question asked much when commercially made crumpets are so readily available to the crumpet eating household.  In fact until a couple of weeks ago (when I decided to have a go at making some myself), I could safely answer my own question with "never".  However now that I have both tasted home-made and made them for the cafe, I can say without a doubt that I will not be buying commercial crumpets again.  There is absolutely no comparison. 

A home-made crumpet is so very different and so much nicer.  Even though it takes more time and effort to make, I can say that it was worth the effort.  And fortunately for Blue Bird customers, you do not need to go to so much effort in your own kitchen, let me do the work and make the crumpets for you.  One customer's comment was that it was just like her grandma used to make and that it took her back to childhood.  And that is why we make them here at the cafe ...because the Blue Bird is all about recapturing childhood and enjoying the memories of grandma's house.  So next time you are in Lockhart on a Sunday for brunch or afternoon tea, try one of our homemade crumpets with butter, jam or golden syrup...whatever takes your fancy.