Homage to a once-great restaurant

The carrot cake at Pharleys Cafe had a rich and spongy base with grated carrots and decadent tangy cream filling topped with toasted macadamia nuts. PHOTO | MADAME CONNOISSEUSE

What you need to know:

  • I know I haven’t been to Pharley’s in a while but this new menu seemed rather limited. Their menu used to have amazing smoothies, fresh seafood, pizza, burgers, an active wine club... and it was all so divine.

  • Surely business couldn’t have gotten so bad in the past year that they could now only offer cakes and coffee!

Do you ever realise just how cheap you can get when you go broke?

When you have money, you walk into a restaurant and order a Sh500 bottle of sparkling water as if you’re not the same person that grew up buying those one-bob sachets of coloured ice laden with sugar.

When you’re broke and the matatu conductor hasn’t given you back your Sh20 balance yet, you keep fidgeting in your seat and glancing impatiently back at him just so he knows you haven’t forgotten!

Walking into Spinners Web then, everything seemed ridiculously overpriced.

We walked up to Pharley’s Cafe to place our order at the counter and we were told that everything available was written on the overhead chalkboard. That chalkboard featured only a couple of cakes and coffee.

I know I haven’t been to Pharley’s in a while but this new menu seemed rather limited. Their menu used to have amazing smoothies, fresh seafood, pizza, burgers, an active wine club... and it was all so divine.

Surely business couldn’t have gotten so bad in the past year that they could now only offer cakes and coffee!

SHUTTING DOWN

Upon enquiry, I was informed that this spot will be closing shop as soon as this month and moving on to Vipingo, and the space is going to be taken over by Spinners Web. I felt a momentary pang of pain – I don’t like it when restaurants shut down.

As a last hurrah to this spot, I ordered a slice of carrot cake, remembering how everyone used to rave about it back in its heydays, and coupled it with a glass of juice – but only because I detest coffee and that was the next best option.

As we waited for our food to be served, we walked around Spinners Web admiring all the beautiful products from various brands on display, but I gave up after all of two minutes. I was broke and those prices were depressing me.

Take for instance a brand that sells baskets (yes, your regular sisal kikapu) with a kikoy scarf to jazz it up for almost Sh2,000, when I knew that the whole thing didn’t cost anywhere near that much.

And to think that there were people buying this! I wanted to go drown my cheap self in cream and sugar, so we walked back to our table where our food was served promptly.

Sometimes I wonder how restaurants come up with their pricing system. This standard glass of water with ginger, lemon and sugar cost Sh250!

Word to the wise... always ask for the glass size at restaurants before you order, especially when you’re broke.

One bite of the carrot cake and suddenly I had that Bob Marley “Every little thing’s gonna be alright” tune playing in a loop around my brain.

It had a rich and spongy base with grated carrots and decadent tangy cream filling topped with toasted macadamia nuts, and reinforced that I really would miss this place.