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The journey to Scarborough took just under half an hour. They didn’t talk much, but that didn’t matter; the silence wasn’t at all awkward. Sabrina was content to look out of the window.
They passed a sign for Robin Hood’s Bay and Teddy asked her if she’d ever been.
‘No idea,’ she said with a strained laugh. ‘It doesn’t ring any bells. I think I would have known, like I knew that I’d been to Shoresend. When I was little. I remember my dad whirling me around his head pretending to be a seagull.’ She laughed and he thought again what a lovely sound it was. Natural and clear.
‘Robin Hood’s Bay is lovely,’ said Teddy. ‘All steep streets.’ He’d taken his ex-fiancée Matilda there to show it off to herbut she wasn’t that impressed. She hadn’t seen the winding narrow streets and the tiny cottages, the cliffs, the rock pools and the rolling sea through the same eyes as he had. Plus she’d worn stupidly high heeled shoes and almost broke her neck on the cobbles.
They parked up in a multi-storey and walked down into a busy Scarborough centre. The air was a cocktail of salty sea, fried doughnuts, hot-dog onions and sugary candy floss. There was an energy to the place, a buzz and vibrancy that she liked, but she much preferred the volume-down, less commercialised Shoresend. They passed a crammed fish-and-chip restaurant with a queue waiting outside, then rounded the corner and carried on up a long road, right out of the main part of town, to where Ciaoissimo was situated. It looked massive from the outside, plenty of room for all the holidaymakers who didn’t want to queue anywhere, but when they walked in, they found fewer than half the tables occupied.
‘First impressions?’ asked Teddy.
‘Looks more like a transport café than an Italian restaurant,’ Sabrina answered. ‘Cheap tables and chairs and too many of them, no space between; terrible layout, designed to cram in as many diners as possible without giving a toss about their comfort. Every surface is hard: the walls, the furniture, the floor, so any sound is going to amplify, nothing to soften it.’
Teddy stopped the ‘Wow’ coming out of his mouth because it would have sounded puerile, but she seemed to know her stuff. The general hubbub was indeed harsh on his eardrums.
They were waiting a considerable time before anyone turned up to attend to them.
‘I’d sack Flick if she took this long,’ Teddy whispered, bending to say it into her ear. There were only two waitresses on the floor zipping around; the place was clearly understaffed.
Eventually they were shown to a table and given oversized laminated menus. When Teddy attempted to open his up, he had to peel one page from the other because it was sticky. He and Sabrina both pulled ‘yuk’ faces.
The choice of dishes was extensive, though. There was everything you could hope for on it. Teddy whistled; Sabrina wasn’t as impressed.
‘Too many choices,’ she said immediately. ‘Too many words, each dish with its description. It’s over the top, it’s actually off-putting.’
‘Surely it appeals to a broader base? I always feel we don’t have enough on our menu.’
‘You’ve got it right, whether you meant to or not. A good standard menu with wide appeal and enough specials for variety. If you put too many dishes on a menu, people start to wonder if they should have picked this or that; it unsettles them. They’d rather have three, four, five dishes they like and have to pick between them, not forty. It will take people an age to decide what they want otherwise.’
‘Well that’s made me feel better,’ said Teddy.
‘Their spoilage costs must be eye-watering,’ said Sabrina, shaking her head. ‘The chefs I bet are tearing their hair out. They can’t pour love into every one of these meals.’
‘Love is poured into every one of mine,’ said Teddy. ‘I wouldn’t send anything out that I wouldn’t eat myself.’
‘Precisely. And imagine Niccolo and Roberto having to learn about all of them in order to answer any questions.’
Teddy cast his eyes over the menu again, calculating howmany ingredients there must be. ‘They couldn’t supply all this fresh on order, could they?’
‘No, so imagine how much is frozen, tinned, shipped in from outside. They cannot possibly make this the same way you make yours.’
Eventually a waitress turned up at their side.
‘Sorry,’ she said, pushing her hair out of her eyes. ‘We’re so busy. Now can I get you some drinks?’
‘Excuse me,’ a woman shouted across from another table. ‘How much longer is his main going to be? I’ve nearly finished mine.’
The poor waitress didn’t know who to sort out first. Teddy made it easy for her and told her they’d wait.
When she darted off to the kitchen, Teddy grinned.
‘I’m liking this. It’s terrible.’
‘I think I’ll have the Bolognese for main,’ said Sabrina. It was a popular staple and she wanted to know what Ciaoissimo did with it.
‘Have whatever you like, you don’t have to pay today,’ said Teddy. ‘I’ll deduct it from your next week’s wage.’
Her eyes flicked up from the menu, believing him for a second, and he laughed. And she thought what a lovely laugh he had; agenerous boom, she decided.
