The Old Red Cow, Smithfield Market

The newly, beautifully refurbished Old Red Cow in Smithfield Market was not the place I would have expected The Quiff to choose for his birthday drinks. But then again, he didn't, I did. And if I say so myself, what a great little venue. With it being on the city side of Smithfields it runs the risk of being over-run by lawyers, bankers and their bretheren from the suited profession. Instead it was packed to its admittedly rather small rafters with graphic designers, film makers, printers and other creatives all of which served to further emphasise how deeply uncool the Quiff and me are.

Despite it being over two floors, everyone seemed to migrate upstairs where a free jukebox encouraged a random selection of Phil Collins, Elton John and David Bowie, which was a lot better then it might sound. The Thursday night crowd were definitely in preclub mode, or perhaps pre-payday suggested the Northerner, as impromptu singing , dancing and hugging broke out in the groups of pretty young things that surrounded us.

Apparently they do a superb Bloody Mary but technical glitches and an overrun bar staff meant I settled for the beers which were fine. The Northerner rated the house red as very quaffable, which was obvious given the way her and Big D demolished the bottle.

They also do great food according to a couple of people I spoke to, but no-one seemed to be in the mood for eating. The Old Red Cow is a place for drinking and unwinding and the couple who run it have the charm of old school Rovers Return landlords with the coolness and style to match the clientele. A good combination, and a good boozer.