What a week for heat

So far this week we have had the dishwasher blow up, glass washer pump go and 4 fridges fail. On Thursday evening Mark loaded up the fridge for service the next day with all the meat and fish for the new menu. Low and behold when we came in it was running high with a temperature of 12 so all the meat and fish were ruined. I was distraught at the thought of throwing away all the fillet steaks, Racks of Lamb, Sirloins, Chicken, Duck and many other cuts of meat which cost well over £700 from the butchers so I telephoned the RSPCA Blue Cross and other organisations but, no one answered before 9.00am. So we decided on DUDLEY ZOO. Bless, they came along and collected all the meat (by that time the fish was thrown as you would smell it in Stourbridge) but, it made us all happy in the fact that the lions would be enjoying fillet steak that evening, but sad that we had lost so much stock.

Sorry it has been so long since we did the last newsletter, it just goes to show how busy we are. Marks menu on a lunchtime has gone so well we are advising that people book and the Garden Room is so popular for diners on a lunchtime. Its been nice proving to the bank that we are a successful business and we are 47% up on this time last year and in a recession. Its lovely seeing regular diners and staying guests and we unfortunatley have to turn people away as we are not big enough or have enough bedrooms at times, perhaps this will prove to the bank that we need to expand. The gardens are getting more established now. We have taken a lot of conifers out and found the original rockery, which, we have planted up with alpines and when we can we will plant up the other side with ferns as it was originally planned for.

We are advertising for more staff to help us in the busy periods and the response has been fantastic. We also advertised for another Chef to help in the Kitchen as once again, this is getting so busy. Lets hope he/she can bring their talents and Mark enhance them. We are looking at doing talks on the refubishment of Dunsley and Mark (Chef) to do cookery demonstrations closer to the end of the year to get us through the long and dark nights. Watch this space for dates and times.

We have teamed up with another Hotel Dunsley Hall in Whitby. When I purchased Dunsley I never knew another existed and especially a hotel but it's nice to think we can work together and give special offers at each hotel to our guests. www.dunsleyhall.com take a look at their website it looks beautiful. Unfortunately, I have not had time to visit but I definately will.

The New Menu

Mark has designed a new light lunch menu which, is going very well. He has home made beefburgers on the menu which, I have to say are beautiful.

This is a steak and balsamic onion on a twisted ciabatta one of our most popular dishes.

Whats this???????

This wheel was found in the outhouses and we plan to use it as a feature. It originally had a handle which unfortunatley, has fallen off.

We would appreciate any advice on what it was used for.