French sojourn left me proud of our pubs
During a recent trip to Nice, I was reminded of good old 'Angleterre' before the days of licensing reform.
When my wife Dee and I tried to buy a drink in a bar after 11pm, we were told we could only have drink with food, so they gave us a bowl of olives!
Worse still, when Dee tried to order an espresso, she was told they don't sell hot drinks after 9.30pm. Then, when we bought booze in a corner shop at 11.05pm we were told: if anyone asks what we bought, it was chewing gum — very cloak and dagger.
Surely, this is not the 'Continental café culture' we were led to believe existed when we went through the overhaul of our licensing laws?
It reminded me of when I had a supper licence in the 1990s and a bowl of roast potatoes gave us the right to sell alcohol until 2am, and the local corner shop always sold booze after so-called 'hours'.
Or maybe I'm just naive and French licensing laws have never changed.
Perhaps our reform was actually just a ruse to get the local authorities to derive revenue from the trade instead of the magistrates' courts getting it? Anyway, when it came to finding a proper meal (because, frankly, the olives just weren't that filling), we had our choice of pizzerias, with one on virtually every corner.
"We're so close to Italy here in Nice, thought we, that there should be delicious, hearty pizzas cooked fresh by real Italians aplenty."
How wrong we were. Italian, and even French, staff were outnumbered by Turkish and eastern European staff.
We have no objection to foreign staff — we have several in the team at Battlesteads and they are hard-working, conscientious and great with customers — but you can lose the authenticity of the cuisine.
After several expensive and lousy meals, we were fortunate to find a gem of a restaurant — a Sri Lankan/French/Indian restaurant run for 20 years by the same family. Of course, I'll never live it down — Richard Slade travelled all the way to the Med for a Ruby!
Our experience brings me to the inevitable conclusion that Britain's pub industry is second to none. It's got it all — conviviality, authentic cuisines and the best of beers and wines.
It also offers a vast range of food from family-friendly, inexpensive pub grub to expensive gourmet.
We have a lot to be proud of. What a shame successive Governments and health professionals don't see it that way.
Au revoir!
Richard Slade co-owns the award winning Battlesteads in Wark-on-Tyne, Northumberland.
