AA Scottish Pub of the Year 2008-09

On Tuesday night we attended a glittering centenary AA awards ceremony at Grosvenor House in London. Over 1000 people from the hospitality industry attended what was an excellent evening with a glorious dinner and entertainment.

We had been short-listed for the Scottish Pub of the year award and were also looking to collect our 4 red stars for the hotel. I took some of the team down early in the morning on the flight to London so that we could be there in plenty of time.

We all had a relaxing day with a little bit of retail therapy and then some of us even had a facial and their nails done! Robert and Bruce, David and Geraldine and Lizzy came with Rohaise and me to the awards and we all met up in the evening at the champagne reception.

With great anticipation and buoyed confidence we entered the Great Room at the Grosvenor House and over a 100 tables. The hotel was being beamed on to the big screen as one of the new red star properties.

The food was excellent considering they were feeding 1000 people but then again when Raymond Blanc and Tom Aitken are cooking your food you have high expectations!

The awards were after the meal, which meant we had to wait until well after 10pm, but we were spared the ordeal of waiting for the winner to be announced as all the winners had been announced in the brochure for the evening. Before the awards there was some very amusing entertainment with a gentleman and his orchestra providing some comical moments…..I never knew that Beethoven’s 9th Symphony was based on the Batman theme tune. The evening got better when it was announced that audience participation was required and that three people chosen from 3 tables would be required to conduct the orchestra to a chosen tune. Well when our table was announced you should have seen the collective faces – you would have thought that someone had died…….Robert was chosen much to my delight and when his moment came he managed to get the tune changed from I shot the sheriff to Scotland the Brave…….in his new kilt Robert looked every bit the part and although biased, I do believe he managed to get the biggest cheer. We have video footage should anyone want to see it.

The awards arrived and Liz and I went up to collect Pub of the year for Scotland presented by TV chef James Martin……who was caught looking elsewhere when he should have been focusing on her smile! The award is great testament to Liz and her seasonal team and she should be very proud of all her efforts. Well done.

Liz would say the best bit was getting a kiss from Raymond Blanc after he had banged her on the head when passing by……..blushed is not the word!

We finished off the evening with some well deserved champagne reflecting on what had been a great night. Liz was somewhat disappointed to find out that although the tickets said carriages for 2am….no horse and carriage actually turned up………so she took the lift back to her room.