Britney will love Scarborough’ s cheery charm
SCARBOROUGH may be wondering what Britney Spears will make of the open air Queen’s Theatre when she plays there this August.
But there’s a bigger, more immediate question that I’m wrestling with while sitting in a restaurant overlooking the jumble of boat masts in Scarborough Harbour: ‘Do you think you can handle a whopper, love?’ asks the waitress.
Of course I can. Five minutes later I’m presented with a battered haddock roughly the size of a travel pillow, courtesy of the Golden Grid fish restaurant. It comes with chips and strong Yorkshire tea by the mug.
Yes, it’s easy to pigeonhole this Yorkshire seaside town, but there’s far more to Scarborough than you might think.
The gloriously sleek Art Deco Odeon cinema in the centre of town is now the Stephen Joseph Theatre, an arts complex with a lively roster of plays, films and concerts. Even if you haven’t got a ticket, the restored bar speaks of Golden Age cinematic glamour, all the way down to the glazed panels and faience tiles.
The walking is outstanding here, too; footpaths taper and wind across jagged clifftops looking out across the fudgecoloured sands of the town’s two bays and the stout, domed colossus of the Grand Hotel, once the largest hotel in Europe. Scarborough’s finest attraction, however, comes by way of Piedmont, Italy. Inside the charmingly humble Lanterna, Giorgio Alessio has, for the past two decades, been quietly cooking fine Italian cuisine to the plaudits of critics far and wide.
The Barolo-heavy wine list, the quite staggeringly fresh and luscious egg pasta, served with veal and pecorino, the generously hand-scooped dollop of pungent gorgonzola cheese all makes for a sensational Yorkshire/Italian feast.
Britney can look forward to her time in Scarborough. But if she wants to fit into those costumes, she should leave the ‘whopper’ to the locals.
TRAVEL FACTS
LOCAL trains from York take 50 minutes to reach Scarborough. Doubles at The Palm Court ( palmcourtscarborough. co.uk, 01723 368161) from £122 B&B. For more information, visit yorkshire.com