Amour pain doré

Just an FYI... I don't speak French. I know what Pain Doré is because of a wonderful little hideaway in Hull called Edgar.

Edgar is owned and operated by the awesome Marysol, with help from her partner Simon, who have worked tirelessly to provide us all with amazing food. I have yet to have lunch here, but each weekend, K and I can be found in one of the little tables enjoying whatever Marysol's lovely little brain can cook up...usually filled with bacon (part of the inspiration for this blog's name! -K).

K and I are going to properly review Edgar's offerings this weekend, but I have chosen to make my first post about the impact Marysol, Simon and Edgar as a whole have had on me.

We discovered Edgar because K started following Marysol's blog, and we were there opening week and have been back most every weekend since. The first day we went, we really didn't speak to Marysol and Simon, but when we left, we were raving about our experience on Twitter and basically haven't stopped singing their praises. Edgar is about more than food to us, it's about going to a restaurant that makes us feel at home. We have since become friends with Marysol and Simon. Good food is about more than flavour to me. To me, good food is about the whole experience. The service, the food, the staff, the atmosphere, and to be honest, Edgar is tops for me.

K and I had a great experience on Saturday at Edgar that didn't involve us eating food, like usual. K had the idea that she wanted to cook something for Marysol, so she did. (Ahem, bacon jam, by the way. -K) We went over and when we got there, it was busy, they were short-staffed and the dishes were piling up in the sink. K went right to work making a killer Panini for Marysol and Katie, and I decided I would do the dishes for them. You wouldn't think so, but doing dishes for 2 hours in a restaurant was kind of awesome. It felt great to help out a friend when she has done so much for me so many times, even though they might not know it.

As I was doing the dishes, Simon came in to help close down the shop, and when he walked around to the sink, he looked shocked and/or mortified. He said to me, "I can do those", to which I responded "so can I". It felt so great to do what I could to possibly get them out of there earlier than usual.

I don't think I know how to properly articulate the impact Marysol and Simon have had on me. I see how hard they work to give everyone the best food possible and it makes me think that if they have the strength to work so hard to do all they do, I can have the strength to chase my own dreams, no matter how difficult the process may be.

Oh and if you haven't tried it yet, the pain doré is always fantastic!

-A