Pappy's Tiny Tea Shop

Spent New Year's Day walking the hills around Cheddar Gorge, along steep paths of frozen mud, watching goats nibbling the bark on the little trees, admiring the clear views across the Somerset Levels to the sea and the distant uplands of Exmoor. Then down the 272 steps of Jacob's Ladder to the bottom of the Gorge and a search for a cup of tea. I do love tatty tourist tat places, and the shops along the bottom of the Gorge are a good example, have had hit and miss experiences at cafes here, from the cold, bland and hostile to the slightly less cold, bland and hostile, but this time, by good fortune (few places were open and those that were open were full), we came upon Pappy's Tiny Tea Shop, which is indeed tiny, and is just about the first building you come across as you travel down the Gorge from the upper end (the second building is the public lavatories next door). But Pappy's was a delight, mainly on account of its friendly atmosphere, the blond woman who runs it (not sure if she's Pappy or not) is very friendly and welcoming, as though slightly desparate for you to be happy, and the food was good, even though I didn't have anything. My wife's bacon roll was really a baguette packed with bacon (but where was the butter!?) and my daughter's cheeseburger was perfectly cooked and generous with cheese, though the burger itself was just a fried frozen thing, and my son had a Cornish pasty, which wasn't any such thing -a flaky pastry bundle containing mashed up meat and carrots - but then what does one expect from a place like Pappy's? A lot more, I suppose, but then my hot chocolate was generous with cream and marsh mallow and lovingly compiled, and was, unusually, quite chocolatey, but it was served in a glass mug - I hate glass mugs! Never mind. It's one level up from a good layby snack shack (and there are some very good ones - there's one in the Peak District I'm thinking of, but can't quite pinpoint in my memory, and besides, it might not be there any more) Pappy's has seats for about twelve people on three tables, and has a takeaway hatch as well, and a blackboard of extensive panninis and sandwiches. It also sells hilarious things to hang on your wall, like signs that say 'how many men does it take to change a loo roll? Answer - no one knows, it's never happened'. WTF? Anyway, warm hearty atmosphere is almost equalled by the warmth and heartiness of the food.