grafton centre cambridge – New in Cambridge

From cosy cafes to fine dining restaurants, we are lucky to have a wealth of places to eat delicious food here in Cambridge. Now Cambridge BID is celebrating our foodie scene in the city’s first Restaurant Week which runs from 1 – 7 April. Cafes and restaurants will be offering menus at £5, £10 or £15, giving you a chance to try their food and experience their ambience. It’s a great opportunity to check out a restaurant you’ve been meaning to try and to discover new styles of cuisine.

Love Cambridge Restaurant Week — Image credit: Cambridge BID

Taking part in Restaurant Week couldn’t be simpler. Go to the website (details at the end of this post) for info on the places that are participating. Just click on the restaurant or cafe of your choice to check out their offer and download a voucher which you can print out or show on your phone when you get there. For some restaurants, advance booking is recommended.

I caught up with a couple of old friends of this blog who are taking part in Restaurant Week to find out how they’ve been getting on since I wrote about them as they opened.

Amelie Flammekueche Cambridge — Regis and Alex Crepy

Over in the Grafton Centre, Alex and Regis Crepy are delighted that Amelie Flammekeuche continues to grow in popularity with customers of all ages. Cambridge has embraced this novel French fire bread and Alex hopes that their offer of any flammekeuche on the menu plus an Amelie Golden Ale for £10 will introduce the delights of flammekeuche to new people. (If you haven’t tried it yet, trust me, flammekeuche is VERY good!) Amelie has held a top position in the Trip Advisor rankings since shortly after opening in August last year and they have big plans for the future. To read more of the Amelie story, click here

Cafe Abantu has been open for just over a year in Hobson Street and owner Wendy Slade tells me they haven’t looked back since moving into the city centre. Abantu is popular with students, locals, tourists and a dedicated band of regulars. You’ll find Fairtrade, soil association approved organic coffee, delicious home made cakes and a menu which changes daily. Following their successful vegan and Fairtrade special events, Wendy is planning a South African supper club, so keep an eye on their social media for details of that. Wendy hopes that Restaurant Week will encourage people to explore beyond the main streets and discover indies. Abantu will be offering lunch, a slice of cake and tea or coffee for £10. To read more of the Cafe Abantu story, click here

And finally, when you take part in Restaurant Week, not only will you eat well, you also have the chance to win a £100 Love Cambridge Gift Card which can be spent in over 200 locations across the city. Simply redeem an offer in one of the participating restaurants, then share your experience with a photo on social media using the hashtag #LoveCambridgeRestaurantWeek

Good luck and bon appetit!!

http://www.cambridgebid.co.uk/restaurant-week

http://www.amelierestaurants.co.uk

FB: @Cafeabantu Instagram: @cafeabantu

A delicious piece of Alsace has come to Cambridge ….. to discover Amelie Flammekueche, head to The Grafton Centre, follow the signs to Food Social, look up for the yellow Citroen van and prepare to treat your tastebuds!

Amelie Flammekueche is truly a family affair with Regis Crepy (formerly chef patron of The Great House in Lavenham) in the kitchen, son Alex taking care of the business side of things, Alex’s mother Martine overseeing social media and his sister Amelie, after whom the restaurant is named, working on branding plus the look and design of the restaurant.

And I really like her concept. It’s simple and minimal with yellow and white furniture and zinc tables. Then there’s that Citroen H van which Alex tells me came up the escalator in six extremely heavy pieces and which operates as the bar and drinks station as well as the order point for “grab and go” take out orders.

Alex and Regis discovered flammekueche (pronounced flamm-koosh) in 2012 at a restaurant in Alsace. They loved the idea of bringing it to the UK, of revisiting it and adapting it to bring a simple, reasonably priced, high quality product to a modern market. Alex grew up in his parents’ Suffolk restaurants and father and son have always harboured a dream of working together. After graduating from Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne in Switzerland, Alex worked with Gaucho restaurants in London for three years, becoming one of its youngest managing partners and gaining valuable experience which he now brings to this new venture.

Centuries ago, bakers in Alsace would use a thin stretched piece of lightly leavened dough to test the temperature of their ovens. Today, Amelie serves this light, crisp “fire bread” with sweet and savoury toppings. I went for “Authentic” with creme fraiche, sliced onions, smoked bacon and Gruyere cheese, which was molten-cheese-savoury heaven! Johnny ordered “Beetroot and Pear”, a vegetarian option with creme fraiche, sliced onions, beetroot, goat cheese, spinach, poached pear and honey. He loved the earthy, slightly sweet flavours alongside the tang of the goat cheese. He can’t eat onions which wasn’t a problem as each flammekueche is freshly made to order so the chef simply left the onions off.

We couldn’t resist sharing a “Red Berries” sweet flammekueche for dessert. It came studded with raspberries, strawberries and blueberries, topped off with chocolate sauce, ice cream and torn mint leaves. If reading these words is making you hungry (and I’ve had to have a snack in the middle of writing this piece!), I’ll just tell you that as well as the flammekueche main event, there’s a range of starters and puddings plus a children’s menu and a drinks menu which includes a signature beer, Amelie Golden Ale, from Nethergate Brewery in Suffolk.

Alex is delighted to open Amelie Flammekueche in the newly renovated Grafton Centre with its cosmopolitan feel and its busy footfall. And it’s wonderful to see an indie restaurant opening there, bringing a fresh and exciting vibe to the first floor Food Social area. We’ll be back soon ….. there’s a menu to work through and I’ve got my eye on the “Pulled Pork” flammekueche. Regis tells me the pork is cooked low and slow for at least 24 hours …..

http://www.amelierestaurants.co.uk

The Grafton Centre, Cambridge CB1 1PS