our terrace & garden is open!
Author: Amber
bye emma :(
so our lovely emma is leaving us to have a baby!
emma is a big part of abarbistro, being our leader amongst everything else and will be missed hugely whilst she is away.
we all wish you the best of love and luck and are all behind you.
bring on the new addition to the abar family <3
visit to see mr.kerridge
on monday 10th february, we had the privilege of attending an amusing cookery demonstration up at chewton glen, hosted by the man himself, tom kerridge.
tom hosted the event of 230 guests and shared some of the inspiration behind his menus including childhood visits to berni inns and his much loved angel delight!
the fabulous 2 michelein starred meal included crispy pork head for starter, half chicken in beer, with honey glazed celeriac & english truffle for main and to finish, plum fool.
not forgetting the wine (of course) we drank new zealand reisling and own very own house red, the spanish borsao!
guests from the day kindly donated a total of £1790 to mutiple sclerosis, tom’s chosen charity.
tom signed our books and posed for some pictures and a great day was had by us all.
thanks tom!
we love wine!
so, on tuesday 11th feb, me (amber), jose and dave travelled up to london for berkmann wine cellars annual portfolio tasting held in the grand connaught rooms- a beautiful building might I add.
for those of you who aren’t familiar with wine tasting events like these, wine suppliers such as berkmann, hold these events so people like us and other wine purchasers can sample all of the wines available and decide if they want to add or expand on their already existing wine selections.
it’s a great way to compare and contrast on wines that you would rarely be able to taste one after the other. we tried lots of different wines and a few caught our attention so keep your eyes open for some potential new additions to the camber wine stock 😉
tip: spit the wine. (the majority)
what a fishy affair
just thought we’d do a quick post on our infamous fishy fridays.
as most of you know, on the first friday of every month (bar december) we host a quick turnaround event we call ‘fishy friday’. it’s something we’ve been doing for the last five years and we love it!
from 5pm-6.30pm, we serve only our award winning fish ‘n’ chips & a dessert of choice, one that varies each month and changes seasonally also. our normal menu resumes at 7pm, but during that hour and a half, everyone enjoys the simplicity and britishness that fishy friday personifies.
fishy friday is an early evening event that brings out everyone- the young, the old, families, children, friends and colleagues and is something which we are all proud of and enjoy being a part of each month. so if you enjoy a good fish ‘n’ chips, paired with some tasty condiments, our delicious tartare being our favourite, don’t hesitate to give us a call and get yourself booked in on one of the nine events left this year!
we look forward to seeing you.
out with the old…
so, our friends over at the tenth hole are closed for four weeks for a refurb!
it’s a very exciting time for them all, with lots of hard work going on each day.
we are really excited to see the end result and are enjoying following their progress.
what an evening!
so, firstly, we hope everyone had a lovely christmas and didn’t over indulge too much…who are we kidding… we politely request that we do not see another roses or quality street for at least 3 months!
anyway, more importantly, we want to say a massive thank you to everyone that attended our annual ‘carols on the camber’. it was our biggest turn out to date and was a huge success.
the mulled wine went down a storm and the singing was beautiful. overall, a great time had by all.
we are already planning how next years carols are going to be bigger and better so make sure we see you all next year for a good festive sing song!
charity raffle meal
head chef mark and manager steve enjoyed a great evening of entertaining when they hosted their 3 course charity meal to the lucky raffle winners, steve & caroline avis. in a collective effort steve & mark raised £2000 for their respective charities (seafarers UK & the rowans hospice), and the representatives of the two charities were on hand to accept their cheques on the evening. the money was raised for running the great south run and by selling tickets to customers for a chance to win a 3 course meal for 8 people including a mini wine tasting, hosted by steve. the evening was a great success, with dishes including seared scallops for starter, followed by a fantastic duo of duck (confit leg and pan fried breast), and trio of chocolate to finish, (great menu mark). this was accompanied by fantastic wine throughout the evening.
a fantastic success enjoyed by all!
shaping portsmouth
so how pleased were we to hear that we had bagged a nice new ornament for our fireplace 🙂
at the 3rd annual shaping the future of portsmouth conference last monday, our very own karen and dave moore were awarded for their contribution to portsmouth economy over the last 35 years!
back in the day, they opened rosie’s vineyard and haven’t stopped since!
we are all very proud of the award and would like to congratulate everyone else who was awarded last week.
good work portsmouth!
£2000 raised from great south run
on sunday 27th october, the great south run came to portsmouth.
our manager steve and head chef marco both completed the race, along with a few other members of staff. despite the challenge faced by the heavy winds and oncoming showers, everyone finished in good times.
the week leading up to the race, all the staff were involved in selling raffle tickets to customers, with the chance to win a table for 8 people including a mini wine tasting. amazingly, thanks to staff and customers, £2000 was raised which was split between steve and marco’s chosen charities, seafarers uk and rowans hospice.
the draw was made on the afternoon of the race and the lucky winners are steve & caroline who live locally. they said, “we have never won anything in the past and this will be a great treat for friends and family”
good work all round!
photo of manager steve and brother paul. marco was nowhere to be seen. as he completed in such good time, he was already with pint in hand.