Lady Who Lunches: Fit Food Bistro

Mar 1 2011 by Alison Lowson, Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

JUST back from a glorious ski-ing holiday in absolutely fabulous Austria.

Creatures of habit, the whole family booked into our usual haunt of the Gasthof Lebzelter in Zell am See for an action-packed week of ski-ing, snowboarding and Nordic walking.

We’ve been going ‘en-famille’ to Zell and “The Leb” for the last five years, and I couldn’t recommend it enough. Run by the Schandlbauer family (Peter Schandlbauer is a famous former ski jump champion), this picture-perfect medieval coaching inn is the ideal base for winter sports enthusiasts.

While the rooms are unpretentious, the Stubl bar and adjoining restaurant serve some of the best Austrian food around (from simple platters of wurst, bread & mustard through to venison in bramble sauce served with tiny semolina dumplings). All washed down by fine local wines and foaming steins of beer. What more could the hungry skier ask?

Back home - and all fired up with energy and enthusiasm – Other Half suggested we keep up our fitness regime by ski-ing – wait for it - in Scotland!

A suggestion that was met (shame on us!) with something less than enthusiasm by myself and the bambinos.

“Ski-ing in Scotland?” shrieked The Daughter. “Have you lost your mind Pa?”

Now in her defence, the family all learned to ski in Scotland. Every weekend for the best part of a decade, we rose at dawn to pack the Range Rover and braved sleet, snow, fog, freezing hail and driving rain to support the Scottish ski industry. Lunch was home-made sandwiches and a thermos of soup, warmed by the body heat of dozens of other sodden skiers gently steaming in a basic wooden hut.

When the sun came out, particularly at Glencoe, the scenery was glorious. But I can count on the fingers of one, frost-bitten, hand, just how many occasions that happened.

So you can understand The Daughter’s reticence?

But Other Half wouldn’t be dissuaded. Hence the reason I found myself sitting in Tiso’s Fit Food Bistro at 8am on a pitch black Saturday morning trying to summon up the enthusiasm for an away-day to Cairngorm.

However, after a couple of cappuccinos, my mood began to improve. And after a full cooked Scottish breakfast, I was raring to go.

The Fit Food Bisto is tucked away on the mezzanine level of Tiso’s new Outdoor Experience at Perth’s Inveralmond Estate. Ideally located just off the A9, with copious parking, Other Half and I were by no means the only people breakfasting.

The surprisingly cosy bistro (considering the size of this cavernous retail space) was packed full of families enjoying the kids’ play area, couples reading the papers and tapping away on laptops, plus winter sports enthusiasts fuelling up before a hard day in the hills.

As the name might suggest, healthy eating is the watch word at the Fit Food Bistro which serves ethical coffee, delicious healthy lunch options and energising breakfast choices, not to mention fresh fruit smoothies and sumptuous cakes.

This tasty, uncomplicated and healthy fare is all made freshly on the premises.

Well fed and raring to go, we hit the A9 full of enthusiasm.

And I’m happy to report that my Scottish ski-ing fears were completely unfounded. The weather was great, the slopes uncrowded and the snow conditions were spot-on.