Café Continental, 87 Elvet Bridge, Durham (From Durham Times)

Café Continental, 87 Elvet Bridge, Durham

3:19pm Friday 16th July 2010

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Sending out an SOS (for sandwiches).

AS anyone (un)fortunate enough to have read any of my recent contributions to this column will be oh so aware, my other half and I have in recent months been preparing to wed.

Well, I can happily say that it was ten days into married life that my new wife Sarah and I ventured out to one of her favourite haunts: Café Continental.

Having touched down from a week on the scorching Costa del Sol at a rather rainsoaked Newcastle International only a day before, our hearts were much lifted to see the Mediterranean-style climate the good old North- East had apparently been enjoying in our absence return once more as we made our way across Durham’s Elvet Bridge, past Continental’s ground-floor dining area, up its central staircase and into the first-floor eaterie.

Sunshine prevailed and – along with the dreamily happy to-ing and fro-ing of many a proud mummy and daddy visiting for the Durham University graduation day, the café was living up to its Continental aspirations.

We had tried to frequent the café a few weeks previously but unsuccessfully, as it was closed for evening. A friendly and polite waitress informed me, upon request, it is now only open until 6pm.

This is sad and a great loss to those of us who – when not on honeymoon – find our midday breaks sandwiched (forgive the pun) between morning and afternoon workloads and reduced to the much-maligned LAD (lunch at desk).

It could be worth a Durham Times campaign: “Keep Café Continental Catering Closer to Closing Time”, “The Federal Order for the Observation of Dinner (FOOD, for short), or perhaps “Save Our Sandwiches and Soups”. Who’s with me?

If you’re not, it might be because you haven’t yet visited this excellent little café, which is undoubtedly one of Durham’s best – whether you’re after cake and coffee or a full meal. It’s so good, this was Sarah’s second visit in a month – her and The Girls having lunched there for her hen party.

We were welcomed with a smile and helpfully guided through the menu – which includes appetisers, sandwiches, baguettes, Tex Mex, and jacket potatoes to name a few – and the extensive specials board – which offers most of the main meals – before I chose a coronation chicken baguette with salad (£4.95) and a portion of chips (£2.25) and Sarah settled on a gruyere and red onion marmalade sandwich with the homemade soup of the day – which happened to be her favourite: butternut squash (£5.95).

Those with such special interests should note: the specials board notifies diners which options are gluten free; and the background music is light, summery pop played at a volume not so loud to interrupt but not so quiet to allow notable silences.

To drink, I indulged with a miniature bottle of Italian Pinot Grigio (£2.85), while Sarah did similarly with a raspberry smoothie (£2.25).

We had not a bad word for anything. The baguette was a large one, well stocked and quite filling without my side order, while my wife thoroughly enjoyed the soup, in particular.

However, it is the dessert field in which Café Continental really comes into its own. It does not keep a dessert menu, our waitress explained, as the offerings change so regularly. So, we were invited instead to approach the dessert fridge, where she explained the exact identity of each of the ten to 12 options on show. Each looked worth a return visit in its own right; but I eventually chose the Dime Bar cheesecake (£3.95) with ice cream (50p) and Sarah the Bounty cheesecake (£3.95).

Both were excellent: the Bounty variety being creamy and just what was needed for an increasingly warm summer’s day; and the Dime Bar thicker and crunchy, nicely offset by a couple of scoops of luscious vanilla.

Alas, time was running short.

Honeymoons, apparently, do involve some practicalities and our next appointment – with the bank – was fast approaching.

Suddenly, I was quite glad I’d gone for a small Grigio. So, we had to forego coffee and after-lunch drinks, though they looked and sounded wonderful, and head out into the afternoon below. Sounds like a good excuse to go back, if ever I heard one.

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