Boston Tea Party

If  TGI's is for Friday nights, Cheltenham's Boston Tea Party is for Sunday mornings, and, as Lionel Richie and Maroon 5 will attest - Sunday morning's are swell. I spent a leisurely AM in the cafe where there's tea on tap, burgers for breakfast and the eggs are Benedict-ified!

Boston Tea Party's a small, family run chain of cafes that specialise in all-day breakfasts. The coffee machine's always on, the door's always open and, because everyone in there's a lot cooler than me, it's heaven for a people-watcher. The Cheltenham branch - newly opened this year is a bit of a looker. It's all reclaimed wood panelling, worn leather chairs and those big industrial lightbulbs that you see on Pinterest. BTP use their cafes as exhibition spaces so the walls are adorned with original pieces from local artists.    

How does it work? Well, there's a bit of an interactive ordering system - kind of like Starbucks but with food - you don't just sit down and wait. Peruse the menu at your leisure, head up to the till, place your order, marvel at the baristas who turn your frothy coffee into latte art in front of you, then head back to your seat. I presume the main reason for this, is to force you to walk past their frankly offensive selection of cakes. Huge great slabs of tea loaf; carrot cake, flapjack, and rocky road like you've never seen. A small child escaped the clutches of her father and ran directly at them while I was queuing - she wasn't tall enough to properly see over the counter but her dad still had to drag her away screaming. Everyone else in the queue seemed to understand her pain.

The menu's full of breakfast classics made with locally sourced ingredients and a bit of flair - a greasy spoon this place ain't. I went for the stack of scotch pancakes with maple syrup and bacon - admittedly, an unoriginal choice but not one I would normally go for. Fluffy, warm, sweet and salty with just the right pancake to bacon ratio - I'm still congratulating myself on my ordering skills. I washed it down with a sharp and refreshing raspberry and mango smoothie - just the ticket. My dining companions were slightly more adventurous with their choices, one opting for poached eggs with hollandaise and avocado, the other had 'The Boss' - a full English with ALL the trimming. I'm assuming from their content little faces that they were pretty happy too.

If you don't live in Cheltenham, hope is not lost, branches of BTP are springing up all over the West of England; Bath, Birmingham, Bristol, Worcester - each one is unique and the ingredients for their delectable breakfasts are sourced from around the local area. So if you're fed up of dry toast and stodgy porridge, treat yourself to a BTP breakfast instead - trust me, it'll make your day.