The Farm Gate Cafe & Providore, Kettering

Breakfasted at the above venue this morning with none other than my great friend Gobbler, and two of his youngsters.

We really put poor old Lee, owner and chef, under the pump with the two of us food bloggers turning up together! But Lee braved it out, and to his credit, won the day! Even despite Elaine Reeves (food writer for The Merc) also arriving to check the place out!

Lee must have felt truly beseiged by food writers!

I have to admit to being 100% impressed by both Lee and his cafe, as well as his staff, and attitude. I loved ALL of it - the full package he has on offer down there at Kettering.

Which makes his news of today even more alarming - and I'm going to leave it to Gobbler to write his true account of our conversation with Lee today, but summing it up - following complaints to the Kingborough Council from a neighbouring property owner (to Lee's pig farm where he grows his famous pigs) regarding the smell of the pigs (hello - it's a farm; it's a farming area; that's what people do in these areas; it could have been goats, or sheep or cows - they all smell!), Lee is looking at having to close down the operation, given that the very reason he established the cafe in the first place was to ultimately showcase his pork products.

The Kingborough Council need to seriously get with the program! They can't on one hand claim to want to be a tourism and farming municipality, then be so negative in solving these issues.
What do you reckon tourists want to do when they are in your municipality? Visit a few of your local residents houses for an afternoon cuppa? Or maybe drive down the Channel and sit in somewhere like Pecora or Farm Gate, eat local products and chat to the local owners and staff about your fabulous region?

Anyway - back to our food, and delightful time at Farm Gate this morning. Everything Graeme Phillips said about this place a few weeks ago in The Merc was true, but I think there was one thing wrong with his review - he didn't RAVE about it like I intend to!

I spoke to Lee on Thursday, and after some conversation, decided that I should be honest as to the reason why I had popped in to look at his menu and find out times of opening. I confessed to being Rita, at which he was gobsmacked, fessing up to the fact that he had been speaking about that very Rita not 5 minutes before I arrived. He had been talking to someone about the Lotus Eaters post.

So just be warned - I'm everywhere!

I had a sly poke at Gobbler in my comments on the blog on Friday morning about his non-appearance yet at Farm Gate and wasn't surprised to receive a phone call mid-Friday morning, with the caller id coming up as 'Gobbler'. He was laughing when I answered the phone and I knew exactly why! So - we arranged to breakfast en famille (with family) today and check it out together.

I'm pretty sure I speak for Gobbler as well when I say we both really liked the place. It's got a lovely 'feel' about it, and Lee really is one of those genuine guys - someone who wants his customers to feel they're in their own dining room, or one of their friends dining rooms, and wanting to give them beautiful, local, well grown food on his own terms.

I had one of those gut feelings about Lee that if I entrusted my life savings to him today, he would be the one person in a million who wouldn't be found sunning themselves in Acapulco tomorrow! I hate Bert Newton, but to coin one of his oft-used phrases - "I like the boy"!

There are different menu options for whichever time of the day you're there. Obviously we ordered off the Brekky menu, but I really liked the look of the lunch & dinner menus, so will be back soon to try either.

Gobbler had the Farmers Breakfast - 2 eggs cooked to your liking (he had fried) with bacon served on thick cut toast with chipolatas, mushrooms & homemade baked beans - $15.50. I had French Toast - thick cut toast (Summer Kitchen fruit bread) dipped in an egg batter, pan fried in butter, sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and maple syrup - $7.50. Lee also added a rasher of his fried bacon to this for me to try. The two Gobblers junior nibbled on fruit toast. All was delicious!

He does a beautiful looking Eggs Benedict served with his free range ham for $12.50, as well as a Farm Gate Omelet, a 3 egg omelet filled with home cured green bacon, onion, cheese, mushrooms & tomato for $11.50. Superb value and flavour!

Do you maybe get the impression I loved it there?

Enjoyment level for this one - with 5 being the most fabulous meal I ever had, and 1 being the shittiest - I rate as being 6! I can't say fairer than that now, can I?