THE GUV'NOR

Mike Bell

The licensee of Portobello Gold in Notting Hill, west London, bemoans the trade's penchant for a 2pm food curfew

Times are tough - if we don't plan to do food after July, we are in for a hard time.

One thing that has always puzzled me is this inability to think "food" past 2pm - especially on Sunday.

Last Sunday we arrived at 2.10pm in the Mumbles, in the pretty outer reaches of Swansea, to be greeted with: "Sorry - we've stopped serving food".

Seeing plenty of free tables, we tried the old "fellow restaurateur" trick - no luck. "We've just driven 200 miles at breakneck speed to be here," brought the same response. "We're writing an article on this strange 2pm food curfew," didn't work either. "Are you frightened of the chef?" we asked eventually. "The chef is the owner," came the reply.

It was like talking to a call centre of some sort.

Why on earth does this happen? There was more potential trade out on the street than 90% of pubs in this country could shake a stick at. Two minutes away we found a 200-cover Italian restaurant still churning out excellent food at 4pm. It probably owed much of its success to the opposition's stifling lethargy.

Many people still regard sitting down to a meal as a family as essential and the Sunday roast is still the hot favourite - the very meal that even the snobbiest of diners are prepared to eat in a pub.

They certainly don't expect to be hustled out by 3pm "to let the chef have a break" - before what?

I can trace the all-day Sunday lunch back to the 1960s - it had to be a lock-in in those days. It worked well then and works even better now. Pubs known to do all-day lunch are winners that soon build trade if they are any good - especially from larger parties that can spend up to six hours having lunch.

I fear the British Isles faces a long journey ahead.

With the English smoke ban looming, time (especially at 2pm on Sundays) does not always work in our favour.