The Guardian - Feast

‘This is quite literally the pub of my dreams’

- Grace Dent

The sight of fresh paint being applied to The Alma in Crystal Palace (establishe­d in 1854) gave me reasons to stay positive this spring, because it meant pubs were coming back. Despite everything, the fine British tradition of being busy doing nothing was not to be made obsolete, which was a spark of joy. I missed restaurant­s, obviously, but while eating out always seemed bound to return in some careful, sterile, heavily planned way, British pubs have never been about carefully laid plans. Their beauty is in their chaos.

A pub’s essential essence is fun, now, tonight or tomorrow: no bookings, no time slots, no table service. Pubs are any given Friday, six deep at the bar, jostling cheek and elbow with strangers. Sticky carpets, table swapping, shouting, with some tuneless singing thrown in for good measure. A rotund pub dog padding about having its ears fluffed. No cocktails, although they will do you a Bacardi and coke in a glass with a lipstick mark and no ice. If you stick around until closing, you might even get a snog. Not one of those things is remotely hygienic, of course, but, before Covid-19, worrying about germs was for neurotic sorts in bleach adverts.

I took pubs for granted before all the upheaval, but by late spring

The Alma

95 Church Road, Crystal Palace, London SE19. Open all week, noon-11pm (midnight Fri & Sat). About £25 a head for three courses, plus drinks and service

 ??  ??
 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom