Elitist under pine trees, before anything else (5,3)
I believe the answer is:
first off
'before anything else' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'elitist under pine trees' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'trees' could be 'firs' (fir is a kind of tree) and 'firs' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'toff' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for first off that I've seen is " initially ...".)