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LONDON PUBS
It’s my round:
Getting in the
lunchtime beers
at The Eagle
orders. She’s in London to
study taxidermy. “I make
artworks that include
taxidermy and London’s
the best place to learn
about it,” she says. She’s
the first waitress I’ve met
who could not only tell me
the day’s specials but also
stuff them for me. I opt for
the three-course set lunch
($40, available Monday-
Friday) and a glass of British “champagne” – sparkling
rosé wine from Hush Heath Estate in Kent.
First up is beet soup and buttermilk biscuits,
then Yorkshire grouse. The claws and feathers are
still attached to the ends of the grouse’s legs so the
little fellow looks like he’s wearing socks. For dessert,
brown sugar donuts with sea buckthorn curd
for me, poached peaches with raspberry sorbet
for Bobo. It’s one of the best meals I’ve eaten in
London in a long, long time. To drink there’s beer
on tap, of course, but also a wine list that ranges
from $6.50 glasses of house red or white to bottles
of Château Lafleur for $800 (“layered richness
and ferocious tannin”) and Grands Échézeaux
Domaine de la Romanée-Conti for $1,900.
‘We are going
to Paris but
a friend said
we had to
come here’
Looking around the
room, there are signs that
the Harwood is still a pub
and not just another restaurant.
A couple of punters
(as pub customers
are known) are standing
at the bar while a couple
more sit on the leather sofas
by the fireplace, each
with a pint. The Harwood
even hosts a weekly pub
quiz. However, most of the space is given over to
diners. A man in a brass-buttoned blazer is having
a romantic lunch with a blonde who may or
may not be his wife, while two slick young men
in sharp suits at the corner table talk too loudly
about how much they drank last night. There’s
also an Australian couple: “We’re on a tour of Europe,
eating at all the best places,” the wife says.
“We’re going to Paris next week but a friend said
we had to come here.”
ONCE UPON A TIME, not so long ago, pubs didn’t attract
foodies. The pub was where people (usually
men) came to drink (usually beer) and smoke
(usually cigarettes, occasionally a pipe). They’d
There’s the beef:
The Eagle’s
famous steak
sandwich
56 DECEMBER 2012/JANUARY 2013 SCANORAMA
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