There are about fifty seats at the greasy spoon at which I, ahem, partake of brunch of a Saturday morning. When I am there I always dine in the No Smoking Area. This consists in its entirety of my two-seat corner table, the only one with a “No Smoking” sign on it.
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6 Comments
I read somewhere that this is standard practice in France, which has nominally had very tough anti-smoking legislation for years, but you’d never know it from what appear to be the facts on the ground.
If you are in a greasy spoon, you take it as it comes: cracked mugs, mismatched cutlery, etc. And somehow I don’t think anyone eating in a greasy spoon has their health at the top of their list of priorities.
Besides, the grubbier, more smoky, and greasier a greasy spoon is the better the food and cheaper the price.
Back in my obscure London school days we had a Cafe Team whose explicit purpose was to do the rounds of the local greasy spoons in our free periods and to rate them out of five on the basis of:
a) grease
b) state of tables and chairs (torn plastic covers got extra stars)
c) the ability of the owner to pour several cups of tea in a single uninterrupted movement as the pot passed down the line of waiting cups. Technical merit and artistic impression were marked separately.
Life was simple then.
There used to be a caff on Upper Street in Islington where the coffee was in two urns, with sugar and without. I asked for black coffee once, but they said, no, the milk’s already in.
Is this place be worthy of mention at classiccafes.co.uk? Certainly the service sounds like it would be!
Can anyone tell me if the following benchmark is possible or will I be working for free?
Owner shall only pay the Manager its complete fee (7.5%) if the Company is producing a positive net income that is greater than fifteen percent (15%) of gross sales. If net income is positive, but less than 15% of gross sales, Owner and Manager shall split such income (Owner shall consider such fee as a licensing fee for the use of the name and mark). If net income is break even or negative, Manager shall not be paid any fee.