Thursday 19 March 2009

Sending out an SOS - Smiths of Smithfields

Over the last week or so that I've been writing this little blog I've received more criticisms then I thought I had readers - which is five. In no particular order they have complained that - you're not writing as yourself, what's a pretty young thing? , your Bloody Mary recipe choice is wrong, you're not drinking Bloody Marys, and why do you continue to include your photo.
So given my extensive academic and professional background in working with customer feedback I've decided to ignore all of them. I will instead write up my latest night out at Smiths of Smithfields, home of great steak and the legendary SOS lager.
The Musician was over from the US for a week of fun and frolics, which served as the excuse to call together one of my motley crews of bankers, PR's and consultants for a night of catching up and drinks. Well catching up, in the sense that we all pretend to listen to each other while thinking about our next self-agrandising anecdote.
Nevertheless The Musician is one of the nicest men in the world, so we all momentarily put aside our pretences and enjoyed catching up whilst enjoying the considerable ambience of the bar. Champagne was knocked back with the recklessness of people who are pretending that there is no such thing as a credit crunch. DB and me then moved on to sampling a few of the SOS lagers which were grand, although why he insists on topping them up with lemonade (sobering, apparently) is anyone's guess. The crowd at SOS is certainly not cool - you don't find many hipsters or pretty young things here. And given the way that the SOS model has been imitated - poorly might I add - by aspiring young bars all over town, the place can feel a bit....well dated.
However SOS is a grand old institution which does what it always has done very well - great drinks, amazing food, and loads of space for mingling and enjoying yourself. As the ever quotable DB would say. If it aint broke...

1 comment:

  1. This place is just round the corner from my office ... so if my contract gets renewed we may have to review your .. errr .. review there :-)

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