Me and the Missus love Premier Inn. Its cheap and cheerful and virtually everywhere. The hypnos beds are to die for and you always know what to expect as the rooms are always the same. Its a home from home with no washing up. We can't wait to go somewhere again and stay at the Inn this year sometime post-pandemic. Premier trips always involve lots of charity shops and car boot sales, which has got to be good!
When we first turned up at a Premier Inn years ago I had a bit of a double take. Right next to it was a restaurant I associated wholly with the Seventies, namely Brewers Fayre, which turned out to be Premier's eatery of choice.
Once I saw it I got to thinking though whether I actually meant Brewers Fayre or was the lost chain something else?
And then I remembered. Berni Inns! Yes, that's it!
I associated Berni Inns completely with the Seventies and with my parents' generation. Log fires, steak and chips and big fat tomatoes, bearnaise sauce, romantic candle-lit sheepskin rug nights. I've no idea if you could stay there or whether there was more to eat than simply steak. Its a thick cardigan and Yardley scent sort of memory of my parents for me, a nice memory. I'm pretty sure I never went with them so it must have been an adult eatery.
Does Berni Inns still exist I wonder? Did Premier Inn ever consider taking Berni or like Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons did they never meet?
Which old eating chains do you remember readers? Whilst you ponder I'm off for steak and chips with a big fat tomato!
Not sure if we ever went to a Berni, but Beefeater yes. As a birthday treat, or when on our summer holidays we were often taken for a meal out. Our 70's fare was usually Prawn cocktail, 8oz rump steak with chips, peas and the obligatory 1/2 a tomato followed by (in the case of us kids anyway) knickerbocker glory (or black forest gateaux). Yummilicious.
ReplyDeleteNow I feel hungry! Theres a pub near me that does a fantastic 32oz rump steak (I've had it a few times). Cant wait for lockdown to be over so I can do the rounds again (used to go to a different eatery every couple of weeks).
ha ha, great memories and a great plan Toady! That 32oz Steak sounds like a veritable ship of meat to carry you to sweet normality! Do you have sauce with it? As for Beefeater, of course, another lost chain!
DeleteI remember them. I also remember Wimpy. Not many of those left, if any
ReplyDeleteAh, Wimpy. I think it was the very first burger bar I ever saw. In the Seventies in Preston. I may have eaten there but can't recall. I saw a Wimpy in the last few years, in Leeds or somewhere. They just didn't make enough of their early gains and let Maccy D's and Burger King fly right past them.
DeleteYeah, beat me to it, Moonbasers!
ReplyDeleteAs an expat from the early 70s onward, my memories are frozen at that time and I can't get used to seeing Waitrose instead of the Co-Op.
Wimpy Bars were my childhood pleasure (along with an almost forgotten sub class Tastee Freez ice cream, which had a small counter at the back of what I remember as my local Richmond Wimpy...)
I had to Google this stuff and what I came up with doesn't completely match with my 50 year old memories!
Maybe my sense of dislocation at no longer seeing Wimpy bars is due to me growing up in an alternate reality...
Its strange how Wimpy faded away in the Burger wars Looey. They were here first.
DeleteWhen TT was a spotty teenager he had a Saturday job at BHS in the customer restaurant, poisoning peoples with his desserts (79-81). We used to get given a pile of Luncheon Vouchers a couple of times a year, which went towards some of our meals out. Anyone else get LVs?
ReplyDeleteTheres still a few Wimpys in London. Shame that most have now gone as they were nicer burgers than BK or McD.
Luncheon Vouchers, yes! they were all part of the employment package at one time. Did you get any toys at BHS whilst you were there Toad?
DeleteAnyone remember "The Golden Egg" ? Slightly more upmarket Wimpy with less burger orientated menu - fond memories
ReplyDeleteFenton
Nope, Golden Egg is a new one on me. There's a Merrie England in a town nearby, which looks like an old chain of eateries.
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