PADSTOW TOWNHOUSE.
Anyone who encourages the drinking of champagne in the bath – a big freestanding copper bath in this case – and even invents a wooden bath caddy with holes for champagne glasses is definitely on the right track.
In this case, the champagne pusher is TV-famous Michelin starred chef Paul Ainsworth, whose Padstow Townhouse experience is based firmly around food and drink. As we come in off the tiny little lane called High Street, the whole place smells of the dinky Cornish pasties being fresh-baked especially to welcome us. Then there’s a whole pantry stocked with cake and every type of drink from Diet Coke to Ruinart champagne (there’s even a wine dispensing machine) on the ground floor.
And when we get back from our gourmet dinner at Paul Ainsworth at No. 6 down the road, there’s a tray with two different types of hot chocolate (in case one type wasn’t enough), some home-baked cookies and a bowl of fresh raspberries waiting for us on the bed. Because we might be hungry, right?
The term B&B obviously doesn’t do any of this justice, not least because it’s B&B&D. This is no Four In A Bed helltopia of UPVC and dust ruffles and eight-pack sausages cooked by men in comedy aprons. This is a smart and whimsical take on the ‘with rooms’ thing that’s big right now, where chefs you’ve seen on Saturday Kitchen up the foodie ante by offering a sleepover with their meals, normally in cute rooms upstairs or round the back. It’s quite the thing. You even just write down what you’ve had from the pantry and they’ll charge you for it at the end. That’s the extent to which they leave you to your own devices here. You get a phone number and a ‘hope you have a good night’ and then the staff is off out and guests have the place to themselves. And Paul Ainsworth has spread his foodie influence across the whole town. You have dinner, as we said, at Paul Ainsworth at No. 6 just down there, breakfast is at Rogano down the road the other way and you sleep it all off up here in one of the six suites, modest in size but with everything you need, including – of course! - a mini-pantry stocked with everything from champagne to cake. And Padstow, a pretty, paint-it-by-numbers town that twists around a fishing harbour, is so small both of those meal excursions take less time than the trip from your room to the restaurant in most hotels.
Out in that perfect Famous Five-style village boats bob and pasties bake and couples-with-dogs debate whether it’s ‘sconn’ or ‘scone’ with full mouths and German tourists glug ale in proper pubs while swishing through on the Poldark Grand Tour, on a sunny day perhaps taking the dinky ferry over to Rock with its wild sandy beaches and creamy tea shops because everything round here boils down to food - whether it’s Cornish pasties (almost every shop sells them) or Rick Stein, another telly cook and bona fide local, who has a café here, right next to Paul Ainsworth as it happens.
As we reclaim our car key (space is so tight round these parts they need to reposition cars like some sort of motorised Rubik’s Cube), we notice there’s a little box in the passenger seat. It turns out to have a packed lunch of finger sandwiches and home-baked cookies and a juice with bits in case we get thirsty. Thank goodness. It’s been nearly 45 minutes since we last ate anything. From £280 per room per night, based on two people sharing, including breakfast. stay@padstowtownhouse.co.uk, call 01841 550 950 or visit paul-ainsworth.co.uk. We travelled to Padstow in a Zipcar Mercedes. zipcar.com