Thursday 21 June 2007

Cafe culture on the Moor

That's Heaton Moor, the former village cum suburb next to Heaton Mersey where I live. It's in north Stockport. Over the past few years, a host of pavement cafe sort of places has opened along its main thoroughfare.

Sarah and I went to one tonight. The food was OK - sort of a reasonable starter disguised as a main course. Hardly any beer, though. Lots of fizzy stuff under pressure, and some of that so-nasty-it-has-to-be-extra-chilled stuff. We did find a bottle of Duvel, priced at £3.50. That's about twice what it is in Belgium, and a pound more than at my local.

So what is it we're paying for here? The beer is mostly bad, and very expensive; much more than pub prices. The food is only OK; my crab and haddock fish cakes may have contained some sort of gadoid fish, but I suspect that decapods were only a distant rumour to them. Nicely presented, on black square plates, though.

I suppose the answer is that we are paying for an idea. Some sort of sophisticated pseudo-european chic. Frankly, I don't think it's worth it. But I probably don't understand these things. I'm old-fashioned and like beer with flavour and food with a bit of volume to it.

1 comment:

Liz said...

"....Some sort of sophisticated pseudo-european chic."
I agree entirely, for what it's worth! It goes hand in hand with the '30 something "new" speak' ("I was like...") meaning "I thought" or "I felt" (I think!!!)
Or, the statements of intent or fact given with a questioning tone, eg "we are going to France?"
Yes, yes, I have heard of France, please stop asking me everything you say...!
Just goes to prove what I have thought for years - everything's crap these days! Or I am I just too old now to understand?