Con Breakfast

[daveon]

One thing that Concussion will be remembered by me (and my middle) for a long time to come, was breakfast at the Crowne Plaza.

Wow! Like, wow! As I was up at 6am on the Friday, I assumed that I was lucky to be there before the mad rush, but no, other samplings taken at 10 and 10.30, indicated that the food remained plentiful throughout the breakfast. There were mushrooms (of course), there were fried AND scrambled eggs, there was bacon, there were sausages but then it settled down to the business; square sausags; hagis; rich, dark, fatty black puddings; frid potatoe scone; pancakes (ok so these weren't so good); waffles; cereals; fruit; cheeses; toast; different breads; fruit juices...

*sigh*

The only time I've felt happier with a Convention Breakfast was the 1996 Fantasycon in Docklands where they served kidney. Many people assumed they were funny looking mushrooms and probably were not impressed. But I know good offal when I see it!

Comments

[brisingamen.livejournal.com]

Oh, the haggis. I am tempted to demand that all con breakfasts in future feature haggis. So many meat products, so little time. Oh, and the potato scones.

Really, the Crowne Plaza breakfsts reminded me of nothing so much as the Royal Angus breakfasts in the early 1980s, and I can offer no higher praise. As an impoverished con-goer in those days, I could fill up on Angus breakfasts and last all day. These days I space the meals out and am a little more abstemious, but I already miss the CP beakfasts (not the coffee, which was frankly bloody awful, but the tea was acceptable).

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

FRied potato scones. Square sausage. Siggghhhh. (Though I admit one morning they were rock hard and I wondered if they were recycling the buns from the night before..)Also being till 12, it was lunch for me, which was why I didn't have to buy expensive lunches..

[nmg.livejournal.com]

So no porridge, then?

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

I'm tempted to smack you in the face with a kipper for that, but there weren't any kippers either ;-)

[nmg.livejournal.com]

Bah. Next you'll be saying there were no herrings with oatmeal either...

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

Mmm, herrings... Must hold an Eastercon in Sweden one year...

[nmg.livejournal.com]

Isn't alcohol a little on the expensive side in Sweden?

[daveon.livejournal.com]

Weird, I didn't even look :)

[egyptophile.livejournal.com]

It seems to have been the hotel's best kept secret, but someone, I forget who, did tell me that freshly made porridge was available on request.

We were lucky to avoid queueing on Monday morning by arriving at just the right time to be diverted to temporary breakfast tables in the bar. Saturday and Sunday we breakfasted very late and there was hardly anyone there.

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

I loved the availability of fresh fruit. And the way they laid out the hot breakfast so most of the veggie stuff came first, which minimised the contamination of serving spoons.

[brisingamen.livejournal.com]

I was also pleased that they kept on serving that same style of breakfast all through the weekend. I have been to conventions where, having got in a day early, I was treated to a splendid breakfast on the first morning, because the hotel was still in 'proper guest' mode, only to find, the following day, that they had shifted to 'convention bare minimum and nowhere near as good' mode. I always resent that and was pleased the CP carried on regardless. The whole breakfast provision was very well organised; I even ate the scrambled egg on a couple of days, and I almost never eat hotel scrambled egg. It just looked so good those days, and indeed was. Also, they had decent baked beans; the real McCoy rather than something watery and nasty and very generic. I was most impressed.

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

Indeed, having eaten the CP breakfast on the Thursday morning, I can attest that the choice increased once the convention started!

[brisingamen.livejournal.com]

Well, having been pleased with the Thursday breakfast, I initially thought I was hallucinating the haggis the next day. Definitely best breakfast product ever.

[vicarage.livejournal.com]

'other samplings'? Do you mean you went back for a hobbit-like second and THIRD breakfasts? Shame on you.

[daveon.livejournal.com]

Well, yes I did too.

But I did have 3 breakfasts at different times.

[pingopark.livejournal.com]

Certainly the best con breakfast I can remember from about 20 years of con-going. They even did proper continental breakfast options. I definitely expected them to downgrade once the convention had started, but no sign of that. And the staff were competent and helpful. My main complaint would be the total absence of tea spoons, though they were quite happy to bring you one if asked.

I kept having flashbacks to hour-long queues for a dried-up piece of bacon and some soggy toast in the Adelphi. What are the chances that things will have improved there in the intervening years?

[daveon.livejournal.com]

What are the chances that things will have improved there in the intervening

I wouldn't like to take odds on that myself. :)