The Lair

Or something like that. Anyway, it’s the Jeffster’s birthday today, so a night of riotous fun (on a Monday, no less) is planned. Should be good. Staggering around the city center is always safer when the only crowd of drunken yobs happens to be the bunch you’re with.. And now that the hoity toity mobs of Ascot have disappeared back to London, the streets should be quite calm.

Planned visits tonight to The Evil Eye and Victor Js. I’ll update when I get back. If I’m not too sozzled, that is.

I am back, it’s half past midnight. So I am sozzled, sorta.. but still braving the odds to write the review. Well, sorta like a description of events, actually. Firstly, a bit of history. Budweiser beer is a fake. The real deal™ is called Budvar and it’s Czech. It (the real deal, not the American branded version) tastes nice and strong. I’m no expert, but it tastes crisper, lighter and at the same time more flavourful than the American variety which anglicized the name. Interesting historical account about the naming can be found here. All the same, it’s like a million other crisp, light lagers. Meh. So I’m left unmoved. Sue me, beer snobs. So much for the first stopover. Victor Js’ apparently has good food, but we didn’t stop there to eat. Our next stop was the Buzz Bar where my long forgotten chopstick skillz came in handy. Expensive, but I suppose having genuine Japanese food does cost some. I loved the plum wine, the Japanese version of slivovitz. Sweet and with a bite at the end, exactly how I like my wines. So, from fiddling around with chopsticks, it was onto the much talked of Evil Eye. Yes, so it was a bit of a pub crawl, ok ?

Anyone from SL remember the White Horse ? No, you young ‘uns, I don’t mean the new chrome and brass, newfangled Horsey, I mean the old one. The one near the clock tower on Chatham Street. The one with booths separated by old looking varnished wood (but probably cheap wood dyed to look old). The Horsey which served cheese toast to ensure that cholesterol excess would kill you before the cirrhosis caught up with the liver. The Horsey which was packed to the gunwales on most days and the only way to ensure staying together was to cram into a booth and give any wouldbe entrants forbidding looks. Or alternately, have so many empty pitchers and glasses scattered around the table that people steered clear for fear of catching terminal alcoholism. Yeah, that Horse. Where drunk and disorderly meant wrangling with the coppers and odd armed forces chappies manning the checkpoints at the top of the street. Not that I know of any of these doings at first hand or anything. Honest.

The Evil Eye was just like that Horse, but with three floors instead of just the one. Old looking varnished wooden booths, low hanging lights that cast shadows and the novelty feature… beds. Yes, beds. Not stuff you can sleep on, but more wooden planks adorned with lots of cushions and pillows. Oh, and lots of arty crayon like pictures on the walls which I ignored.

On what we went there for .. well, the cocktails were expensive. Not completely unexpected and the place filled up pretty fast for a Monday night, but still… on a decidedly religious kick, I sampled a drunken monk, a brazilian monk … had an evil smoothie (with a whole banana, so it must be good for me!) and err.. I forget. Something else that was vaguely fruity tasting. Oh, yeah. A Dick Turpin. Named after the infamous Yorkshireman. With the intriguing cinnamon schanpps as the main ingredient. Like Dick Turpin ever tasted cinnamon schnapps. Anyway, the cocktails were strong, as befitted their steep price, so they’ve left me feeling pleasantly mellow. On the whole, I’d probably be tempted to try Victor J’s food before I go to the Evil Eye again, based on prices alone. But I did notice that the Evil Eye offered Japanese plum wine for a bit less than the Buzz Bar.

And I staggered home in the twilight at 2330 with several dozen other revellers turned out of their respective pubs. English law is pretty strict. Last call for orders at 10 to 2300; and people get turned out of pubs at around 2315 or so. Not much chance of allnighters, legally.

Oh, and happy 25th, Jeffster.