Queen of Hearts at your service

 Whether or not the tagline of ‘building infrastructure, growing the economy, creating jobs and connecting community’ is true I am impressed by the SARS effort to make transparent how tax money contributes to development. It seems a far cry from back home where our enormous taxes don’t seem enough to pay for anything. We still have to fork out for basic health and education — never mind the road repairs, bridge building and polls!
The SARS website is certainly more user friendly though one has to congratulate ZIMRA for having a website at all — which allows the download of necessary forms as well as the boast that ZIMRA is getting better and better at increasing revenue. No indication however of how the country is benefitting from this increasing wealth in terms of infrastructure or development. One fears of course that our taxes only go to fatten a few already bloated pockets. Would be great to have evidence to the contrary! I hear more and more reports of businesses going under because of increasing expenses in terms of taxes, licenses, pay-offs, handouts. It takes patience, perseverance and humour to keep going and profit hardly comes into the food and entertainment sector.
I first visited Queen of Hearts on Enterprise Road when the garden was very much a work in progress and they were still waiting for licensing and signage.        A year later — and after much patience and humour — the restaurant is licensed and  fully compliant with city laws and   the garden is green and verdant, offering a tranquil and welcoming space.
An old fashioned fountain in front of the lovingly restored house, surrounded by plantings of rosemary, lavender, parsley and thyme is a central feature. Mass plantings of gaura set off the stripped wood finish of the French doors and windows. 
The food philosophy is simple — to make food from scratch using local and fresh source ingredients — organic where possible. When they first opened they provided a buffet with different size plates. 
However, in the face of a greedy public where people would pile a small plate totteringly high to get the lower price — this proved unviable.  So they have compromised with a small but imaginative menu.
Sandwiches (mostly US$7) on very good brown or white bread, baked fresh daily in house — include peppered fillet steak with onion and horseradish, avocado and bacon, chicken with home-made mayo and cheddar with home-made tomato and apple chutney — all served with fresh salad.
We opted for the ‘stove and grill’ and I chose flavoursome baked brie (US$10) — served with cranberries and crispy bacon. My friend ate chicken pot pie, under a neat puff pastry lid with accompanying salad.
Open all day for breakfast, cakes and lunch, they also open on occasional evenings. With a newly built outside pizza oven, Friday night is pizza night often with some live acoustic music and every second Wednesday offers an interesting documentary screening.
Prettiness rules — from the flowering garden, to the pink menu, floral tablecloths mismatched china and decorated cappuccinos. Mains are served on boards — an idea that the owners picked up from a restaurant tucked away on a Tuscan mountain.
There is a good range of freshly blended juices, smoothies and herbal teas for the health conscious along with 8am yoga classes Tuesday and Thursday. Breakfast choices include the full fry-up as well as breakfast brulee (muesli, yoghurt, toasted almo-nds), filled croissants, pastries and cakes.
It’s a peaceful place to refuel.
-g.jeke@yahoo.com