Australians love to shorten words; the laid back attitude of their lifestyle replicated in their vocabulary. If an “-o” or a “-y” can be added on to the end of a word, that’s even better. Some examples include: an alcoholic beverage store becomes a bottle-o, kindergarten becomes kindy, afternoon becomes arvo – I’m sure you get the picture. So, what a mystery it was trying to figure out what ESPY stood for.
In the end, I concluded that ESPY was someone’s nickname – likely a female, perhaps a lady-owner called Elspeth. I was wrong, and it was my (Australian-native) husband who pointed out that ESPY was simply short for ‘esplanade’. Esplanade is not a common word used in the English language, and it sounds like a term perhaps from the Victorian era. For me, esplanade brings to mind a wide, wooden and tasteful walkway along the seaside; white and red striped awnings adorning pretty white shops with tempting glass displays, and ladies with parasols on the arms of gentlemen in top hats.
Esplanade, Christies BeachView on Map
The image in my head wasn’t too far off. The bakery sat on prime sea-frontage location at Christies Beach near a boardwalk and barrier with steps leading down to a sandy beach. This walkway, I presume, was the esplanade in which the bakery was named after. The bakery was a large store, quite modernised, with an army of bakers and servers visible out the back. The goods were displayed on wooden boards on glass shelves, which in a smaller bakery would have been appealing, but in such a large space looked a bit sparse.
Interior decor aside, the goods on display looked fit for giants. They had a wonderful selection of huge donuts on display, stacked up against one another, as well as what must be the world’s largest finger buns. The lamingtons on offer looked like they were made to house small children, the other goods equally out of proportion to a normal bakery selection. In addition to your iced and sprinkled donuts, they also had some glazed donuts – and I am a sucker for a plain old glazed! So, taking two donuts to go, we hopped across the road to the beach – just about managing to finish the donuts between us.
