Stacey Harwood wires from Fitzbillies, the legendary tea shop on Trumpington Street in Cambridge, with the news that the venerable institution, which faced bankrutcy not too long ago, is thriving under new management and a chef that is au courant.
The rhubarb fizz is something you would never associate with the home of the Chelsea Bun (which Tim Hayward, a co-owner who writes on food for the Guardian and the Financial Times, calls "a diametrical coma in a rectangular box").
Here is Stacey's report filed for Saveur:
<<<
Cambridge mainstay Fitzbillies
has always been one of my favorite stops when I'm in England. I look
forward to the reliable tea and Chelsea buns they're famous for, but on
my most recent visit I noticed that the university town fixture has
somehow changed—newer, fresher, bigger, brighter. I soon learned that
Fitzbillies has, in fact, enjoyed a recent growth spurt, thanks to
husband-and-wife team Tim Hayward and Alison Wright, who took over in
2011 and added an imaginative dinner menu with the help of London chef Rosie Sykes.
I sat down to dinner, I was greeted with a basket of cheese straws and
the new house cocktail, the rhubarb fizz, a compelling combination of
rhubarb syrup and sparkling wine — spicy and nuanced. I asked chef Sykes
to confide the syrup's ingredients. "Cardamom and vanilla," she said.
"I've been on a bit of a cardamom kick lately." She infuses additional
flavor into the syrup by simmering the rhubarb in a spicy ginger beer.
warm weather finally showing up at my local farmer's market, I know what
I'll be drinking for the next few weeks.
>>>
http://www.saveur.com/article/Wine-and-Drink/Friday-Cocktails-Rhubarb-Fizz