While Bridbury's "other" restaurant "Eating Time" of Mary Sutton sometimes indulges in exotic experiments, Rita and Don Gastonhill swear by traditional English dishes in their restaurant "The Swan". Their "shepherd's pie" is famous throughout the county. Early in the morning the streets of Bridbury are filled with the smell of bacon being fried for a breakfast that will keep hard workers such as Pat Hackney from Pat's X-mass Trees and smith Christopher Lambert going all day. Rita's "roast beef with Yorkshire pudding" is unequalled and her traditional "haggis", made of sheep's stomach and lamb's liver, sneered at by foreigners, is eaten with great gusto in Bridbury. In this way Bridbury's two restaurants cater to their own cliental.

They do not feel like competitors. Mary Sutton and Marylin Gastonhill are even the best of friends keeping no secrets from each other. Gossiping is their favourite hobby, preferably about Bobby Taylor, the village layabout and frequenter of the St. George Pub. And while practicing this hobby they enjoy a large cup of hot chocolate made by son Nicky Gastonhill. With whipped cream of course!