No more nuts

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Posted at 10:50AM, 28 March 2011 by Gregor Shepherd - Chief sub-editor, olive magazine

Pubs have certainly upped their game when it comes to their plates. In fact so many are now serving such high quality food and drink that it seems to me the food culture in the UK really has progressed in the last five years. No longer do you have to make do with a packet of nuts on a night out, because you can now get good food in a bar just about everywhere.

I still expect brilliant beer lists to mean less great grub.

Recently, two colleagues and I went to investigate a new bar, Mason & Taylor, amongst the awesome hairstyles and surprising outfits of East London. The vast variety of beer (12 draught and 40 bottled) was the first selling point - all coming either directly to the bar from abroad, or from the best craft breweries in the UK, and many of them were entirely new to me. The food was equally good, a pleasant surprise as I still expect brilliant beer lists to mean less great grub. Small plates included such delights as English rabbit (rarebit) with gherkin and grilled Jerusalem artichokes with aïoli.

Thankfully there are now a huge number of bars across London, and up and down the country, which take an equally avid interest in beer and the food served with it. Another that springs to mind is The Fox in Clerkenwell, where the food is really incredible - the Scotch eggs, pork pies and pork scratchings at the bar are among the best I've ever had.

It would be nice if these places could beguile French tourists into them so that even they could be convinced, finally, that British food is good.

Do you think pub grub is now a gourmet contender?

Comments

kitchengardener

28 March 2011, 12:48PM
kitchengardener

They all sound very nice but I'm not quite sure that gourmet bar nibbles (are scotch eggs really gourmet now?) are somehow likely to alter longstanding international misconceptions of UK cuisine. Anyway, French beer is fairly bland and uninteresting in my experience, you'd be better off crossing the border into Belgium if you want to tempt beer conoisseurs to UK pubs. And even if you go for a beer in Belgium you're not going to be offered gourmet nibbles at the bar; a few nuts or cheesy/spicy biscuit bites is the usual fare. Yes you can sit down to a lovely meal with your fine beer if you wish to but bar nibbles aren't really a forte.

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NickyBramley

29 March 2011, 12:33PM
NickyBramley

Can you name me anywhere "up and down the country"? I'm not planning to slag off northern pubs, but I can't think of a single instance of bar snacks of this nature in a pub in my area (North East).

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GreatGlenGame

29 March 2011, 12:35PM
GreatGlenGame

Why shouldn't we serve good local products to go with a pint. I think it is encouraging to see that there is more good food available everywhere. We have started selling our Wild Venison Pepperoni's to bars and restaurants, who offer them at the bar. A great snack to go with a drink. Customers want to know where their food comes from and not only on a plate, but as a snack too !

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Gregoire

2 April 2011, 5:32PM
Gregoire

Good post, I agree. We're always trying to use new and creative snacks... nuts are great, but it has been a while! :)

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