Oooh Bettys

Oooh... I have just finished eating a Yorkshire Curd Tart liberated from my favourite cafe Bettys, this time in its Ilkley incarnation. Any visit to Bettys is an event, it begins with the queue. Every time you visit any Bettys you always have to wait, it adds to that sense of anticipation and makes you value when you finally get to sit at your beautifully laid out table. While you wait the very attentive staff bring you a chair, a paper or menu to peruse to further build up the anticipation. On guiding you to the table which they make you feel was especially chosen for you they give you a menu and tell you of specials of the day. Service is polite, friendly, attentive without being pushy and after magnificent food and drink you don't mind paying twice the normal amount although not much more than Starbucks. I have often suggested that Heaven will be like Bettys but someone else will pick up the tab!
My wife who is a bit of an expert on Bettys remembers Bettys in the past, when it was full of 1970's formica and a bit naff. The service was always good and the food and drink always brilliant but I was interested to hear how Bettys developed by becoming more traditional.
Its always tempting to see regeneration as a process of becoming modern and trendy but just as with Bettys it can involve returning to older principals, bringing back to life, rediscovering that which was lost.
Bettys now own Taylors which produces Yorkshire Tea a nationally renowned local celebrity which allows many to praise this modern company that progressed by regressing as they drink their cuppa and say "Ooooh Bettys."