Remember the hoo-har a few years back when they wanted to close the Pineapple down? Famously, a public revolt that Wat Tyler would have been proud kept the pub open for the good people of Kentish Town, and I'm proud to say that I played a very minor role myself. And it served as a wake-up call for other imminent pub closures - with mixed success.
So roll on 5 or 6 years or so and what we have we got? Pub of the year on a few occasions and I'm sure people will tell you it's some kind of hidden back street treasure. And it is, although not hidden enough on gig nights at the nearby Forum. Local reports are that the beer has gone downhill, but on this visit the Bombardier was fine. Annoyingly though Gemma Gibbons' fantastic silver in the judo came just 2 minutes too late for me to enjoy paying £2.12 for it. (All pints were £2.12 for an hour after Great Britain won a medal - nice touch!)
The bar-behind is lovely, and the pub is lovely. The front room can be a bit cramped and the bar is always surrounded by a hardcore gang of locals who seem to want to protect it from the advances from anyone else not in their clique. Although these bunch of regulars have much fun amongst themselves they have no time for irregulars like me. And to be honest why should they. This is their pub and a good pub should have a good bunch of regulars. Otherwise it's just a bar, but I digress... You should have seen their faces when I made a pretend-approach to their cheese & biscuits that they had laid out on a table, on open view to everyone but seemingly just for them. But the bar-staff are welcoming to all!
As well as getting cramped there's a lot of furniture for too small a space. Where I was sat by the door the locals were towering above on their bar-stools and that pretty much blocked the space for anyone walking past. At least on this occasion one of the great pub destroyers of modern times didn't happen - the person on the banquette next to me ordering up a huge plate of sizzling spicey stinky Thai-food. It has happened here before - most off putting and made my eyes water for the wrong reasons. But everyone else seems to like it!
Maybe I should have sat out in the rather nice conservatory.
The beer festivals and Easter bonnet competition are worth a look. Thank God it didn't close.
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