Why not…?

I opened the doors to The Prandial Playground on February 2 2023. 

“This is still very much a work in progress,” I wrote, in my very first post; “but here I am, in my ramshackle, unpolished state”.

While ‘ramshackle and unpolished’ could be my middle names and I still firmly uphold the opinion that diamonds in the rough have much more value than even the most highly-polished fakes, The Prandial Playground has slowly but surely gathered traction over the past coupla years.

Okay, so it’s not one of those whizzy-bang-bang sites with banner ads, curated reels, ‘sponsored’ content and shout-outs for ‘cool collabs’ — and neither will it ever be. But in its own culty little Betamax way it’s working well, with my restaurant reviews attracting an average of 840+ views on publication and most visitors lingering long to browse my back catalogue too. 

It was — and still very much is — my aim to use The Prandial Playground to promote all that’s good about Bath’s independent food scene at a time when our hospitality industry needs it the most, free of the kind of commercial copy that increasingly dominates food-related sites and instead populated with honest, genuine reviews. It was familiar territory to me; having written about the Bath food scene for various publications for some 25+ years, I was never going to stop just because a publication went bust, or a business plan failed… so off I went, on my own.

But my keen-eyed social media followers know another me too: theatre critic me, or Bath Echo Food and Drink columnist me, or Bath Magazine journalist me,  or Liverpool Post contributor me. And while that me has her own, dedicated Twitter feed (that’ll be @TheAnimalDisco, then) and a portfolio Authory page that constantly reloads and refreshes, I got to thinking… why not season The Prandial Playground with a sprinkling of my other stuff too? 

Dipping my toe in such waters, I recently drew the attention of my social media followers to my most recent contribution to the Liverpool Post. and bingo! Hit after hit after hit, and rafts of positive feedback in the ‘comments’ section on the LP site. I followed it up with another of my Liverpool Post rambles, this time focusing on the history of Liverpool’s Cafe Society, and basked in the same positive response. 

Was I flattered? Immensely! Grateful? More than! To know that even one person out there has read my blah-blah and actually enjoyed those words is the greatest gift anybody could offer to a freelance writer with aspirations to publish a novel (yup, yet another ‘other me’).

So a bullet has been bitten!

In, out and shaking it all about in between the restaurant reviews that will continue to dominate The Prandial Playground’s pages, you’ll find slices and snippets from the point where several of my worlds collide for your — I hope? — delectation. If you don’t like them, tell me! But if you do… shout it out loud on my behalf; after all, shouting my opinions out loud is second nature to ramshackle, unpolished me.

Enjoy?