TREKSTOPS 11111.11E
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A good breakfast is a wise start to any journey, particularly if you're a hard working truck driver. That's why the allday breakfast has became such a popular feature of the UK's traditional roadside cafes. Does it still dominate, and what can you get for a fiver these days? Steve McQueen has been eating his way round the country to find out....
So where better to begin a journey which promises many epic portions than at the Hideaway Cafe at Prince Rock in Plymouth. This is the home of the "gut buster", which is not so much a meal as an event. It arrives on a silver salver and your £3.95 gets you two sausages, two rashers of bacon, two eggs, a quarterpounder with chips, mushrooms, hogs pudding, beans or tomatoes, two rounds of toast and tea or coffee (including a refill, naturally).
Cafe owner Alan Hughes says the gut buster is more than a breakfast, it's a crowd puller. The regulars even run a book: "I've seen people get through most of it in 15-20 minutes," says Hughes, "but the record for completion is eight minutes fifty seconds. I lost money on that one!"
The Hideaway is billed as Plymouth's only 24-hour cafe; that's probably the recovery time.
In previous years CM'S gastro
nomic journey north would have taken in the truckstop run by temperature-controlled transport operator Langdons. Sadly, like so many wayside cafes, it recently closed. The Swindon Truckstop, run by former lorry driver Tony Dibben, is a little way further on, so there's enough time to build up an appetite.
Dibben's truckstop has secure parking, leisure rooms, a shop and fuel; its most popular meal is also the breakfast, When we say sausages here, we really mean sausages," he says. "None of this chipolata stuff." It costs £4.15 and you definitely won't go on your way hungry.
On the trip west into Wales, drivers are likely to become more acquainted with service stations than cafes. The Welsh Office's attempts to purge the roads of caravan cafes has left its mark, or rather many empty laybys. The Road Haulage Association and the Drivers Action Movement use Wales as an example of the strains that legally enforced break requirements can place on drivers who have nowhere to go.
However, there are some oases, but at Silveys Truckstop at Dwmgwill, Cross Hands, it is not the breakfast which pulls them in: "It's probably the home-made chicken curry," says assistant chef Sarah Hinton. At £3.95 it comes with rice or chips, or half rice and half chips. "The home-made pies like corned beef or savoury mince also go down well," says Hinton. These cost £3.50 and are served with chips or potatoes and vegetables. If there is any room left, various sponges with cream or ice cream and a host of crumbles and fruit pies cost £1.45 a time.
Over the border, just outside Stafford on the A449, you'll find the Standeford Cafe (locally known as The Farm). les a family business run by Lyn Lawry who says the breakfasts are popular but the home-baked cottage pie lunches (which cost as little as £2.80) and the "humungous" braised steak dinners with herb-based gravies are top of the pops as far as her regulars are concerned. She has also detected a tend towards healthier diets.
"In the summer they pig out on our massive salads," Lawry reports. "We don't serve as many fried slices as we used to. Many have switched to toast...they are trying!"
Truckstop of the Year
It's a few hours' drive from Stafford to The Poplar 2000 Services at Lymm, but drivers stop here given half a chance. It's just off the junction with the M65 and M6 and was recently voted "Truckstop of the Year" by the readers of Truck & Driver.
With fuel and truck wash, pallets, shop, CB shack, barber shop and good parking, it's well equipped. And the food's available 24 hours a day. We're in the North-West, so breakfast has re-established itself as the driver's choice. The Poplar 2000 version costs £3.85 and includes two rashers of bacon, sausages, egg, beans or tomatoes, fried bread, tea and toast. Marketing manager Karen Donnelly points out that the chef makes lots of pasta bakes and other meals too.
Afterwards, drivers can freshen up in showers which have just received a quality award from the North West Tourist Board. An overnight stop here will cost £7.00. This includes an exclusive scratch card with prizes of free meals, clothing and truck accessories. This would set you up for the long run up to Scotland and the Merlinside Transport Cafe at junction 14 on the M74. The £13.00 package deal includes bed and breakfast as well as preferential rates on a three-course evening meal. Breakfasts here include soda bread and will set you back £3.50.
Soda bread is also part of the breakfast fayre at Fairfield Fayre, just up the road at Broxburn. The £3.25 breakfast is the top seller here, says manageress Irene Smith.
Heading back south, you could take a break in the North Yorkshire truckstop at Barton or press on to the Whitwood Truckstop at Castleford where John Mulheir and Stuart Wardell offer a £1.00 cashback on overnight parking fees.
"We have 76 meals programmed on the till, but the breakfast is the most popular," says Mulheir. It's a steal at 42.95. The braised steak, last heard of in Stafford several meals ago, is also a big seller at £3.80; sweets consist of sponges and crumbles at £1.80. Driving down the MI, there's a cafe and welcome stop-off at "Junction 29". Catering manager Joanne Aylwood provides three kinds of breakfast. The "jumbo", at 43.00, is the most requested. The roll call of its contents can compete with the best we've seen (the gut buster excepted) but tea and coffee are extra. Home roasted meats are also a big favourite.
Further south and BP's Alconbury Truckstop beckons. Come on a Monday or a Friday when it's quiet. Here, you can order just about any thing—the breakfast will cost £3.75 with tea and toast, says manager Stuart White, and the £7.00 overnight parking fee includes £2.00 towards the meal.
Home beckons, but how can you pass a cafe with a name like Super Sausage, which is owned by the Bacon family? This one's in Milton Keynes, but there are four "sausages" in the chain—all around the Northampton area. Tony Stiles does four breakfast alternatives from 42.70; again, the tea is extra. Ar.
Rliffs infrastructure manager Chrys Rampley is drawing up a list of tnickstops and wayside cafes UK wide. She says the project follows requests from members and that Wales is particularly short of stop-offs.
Back to base
On the M25 now and on the way back to base, but rather than eat in the staff canteen a short diversion off the main drag at West Thurrock brings you to Truckworld. It's one of the biggest professional watering holes in the business, with secure parking for 250 and overnight accommodation.
The menus change weekly and the food is the most exotic encountered since Silvey's over in Wales. There are specials of every kind, promises director Nick Ashby. Driver specials at £4.00 include hot chilli con came (definitely not for wimps); or sweet and sour spare ribs with egg fried rice, Chinese vegetables and a bottle of beer in the evening. Feeling hungry?
E The Drivers Action Movement wrote to councils throughout the UK to determine the standard and frequency of lorry parks. DAM found many had replaced them with supermarkets. It also highlights Wales as being particularly short of dedicated truckstops.