We wanted to escape on an outing today, so we headed for a Landmark Thing which will remain secret for now until I do that post. This Landmark Thing is open this week but then closes until the end of February, so we saw a window in the weather and set out early. Which was just as well, because by the time we had done the Landmark Thing, the rain was coming in from the sea. It is, however very mild, which is something I won't be complaining about as up North they already have snow.
On the way to the Landmark Thing and before my secrecy drives you off the rails or off the edge of a cliff I must tell you about breakfast. As we were exploring fairly unknown territory we researched breakfast locations, bearing in mind that today is Christmas Day again even though it is Monday and the 27th of December. Tomorrow, Tuesday is Boxing Day again even though it is Tuesday the 28th. Because these are faux days and holidays.
I'm not sure what happens where you are but Christmas here is always two days because we have Boxing Day following the big day. Public holidays here are always on a Monday, called Bank Holiday Monday whatever the reason. Unless it is Christmas when the Bank Holidays are Christmas Day and Boxing Day where they fall, unless they fall on a Saturday and Sunday, like this year.
Then we go into emergency, I don't want to lose my two free holidays mode because I don't work at the weekend, so we add two faux days on the Monday and Tuesday which are respectively Christmas Day Substitute and Boxing Day Substitute. This little fix prevents revolution and mayhem and a lot of whining and also means that you have no idea what business is open when. You might be able to get a Covid Booster shot on Christmas Day this year, but you might not be able to get breakfast three days later because it is Faux Boxing Day.
Incidentally I have already inserted two big clues as to the nature of the Landmark Thing, so were you paying attention in paragraph two?
All of this meandering, if you are still here, brings me to Brody's Breakfast Grill. (I left the Burger Shop bit out because that's at night), for our purposes it was a Breakfast Grill.
Some detailed research beforehand led us to believe that it would be open and serving breakfast on Faux Christmas Day, and so it proved to be. Detailed research on small businesses is not always fool proof, as it tends to be reliable in inverse proportion to the IT skills and the IT will of the staff of said business to actually keep that information up to date and accurate. In other words, if they don't, it isn't.
So this was how we found ourselves to be on the set of Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome looking for a Full English.
At Brody's you walk in, pay £9.95 ($13.37) each, and for that you get your hands sanitised and are given a plate. After that you are on your own. The universe of breakfast unfolds before you, and like the Starship Enterprise you boldly go where no breakfast has gone before, splitting your infinitives asunder, not to mention mixing your metaphors and your sci fi movies all at the same time.
The corrugated aesthetic is part Mad Max and part Anderson Shelter and there is a definite industrial feel to the interior.
Anderson Bomb Shelters- In November 1938, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain placed Sir John Anderson in charge of Air Raid Precautions. Sir John was a scientist turned politician who led the Ministry of Home Security whose responsibilities covered all central and regional civil defence organisations. Anderson commissioned the engineer William Patterson to design a small and cheap shelter that could be erected in people's gardens.
Made from six curved corrugated sheets bolted together at the top, with steel plates at either end, and measuring 1.95m by 1.35m, the shelter could accommodate four adults and two children. The shelters were half buried in the ground with earth heaped on top.
Back in Brody's, the tables and benches are artfully constructed by men in hard hats who popped in one day on their way to a scaffolding job, before there was anywhere to sit, so they obviously nipped out to their truck pronto and brought the necessaries in for a quick sit down.
To finish the effect, each table comes equipped with it's own Dualit toaster for endless supplies of hot buttered toast. This discovery has to be on a par with that of Quasars, (Don't forget the Star Trek reference), no more Victorian Guest House toast racks of cold toast but the hot stuff right there when you need it.
It is what used to be called small but perfectly formed, when you were allowed to describe things like that, without a trigger warning.
All of the usual culprits are there Grilled Tomatoes, Baked Beans, Hash Browns, Fried Bread, Mushrooms, Sausages, Bacon, Black Pudding and Fried Eggs, sunny side up. All of it freshly cooked with another cooking station for waffles and pancakes cooked to order. Eat as much as you want, come back for more.
Brody's may just be the Landmark Thing on the way to the Landmark Thing, making a perfect day out. I think we may be back soon. Until then here is The Landmark Thing.
