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Stanley Johnson |
‘Give me a good old ploughman’s any day’
Primrose Hill writer Stanley Johnson and his MP son Boris are both traditionalists when it comes to food
FORMER Tory candidate Stanley Johnson glanced down in utter amazement at the £60 bill for Thursday’s lunch neatly placed beside my plate by the waiter.
We were sitting in The Engineer, a popular gastro pub in Gloucester Avenue, near Stanley’s home in Primrose Hill, where we had both each just enjoyed a tasty but small one-and-a-half course meal.
The lunch consisted of a main course of cod on potato and green beans, followed by a small dessert plate of cheese, which we shared, and a decent bottle of Chilean white wine.
“Blimey,” said Stanley, looking at the bill, which included a £6 service charge, “£60? That’s a bit steep.”
He has been coming to The Engineer since 1969 and remembers when it was a spit and sawdust pub.
Then 10 years ago actress Tamsin Olivier, the daughter of the late actor Sir Lawrence, and artist Abigail Osborne took it over and turned it into an upmarket gastro pub.
The restaurant, which serves what it describes as “modern British food with a hint of Pacific Rim” was said to have been built by the Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel in the late 1840s and has won many food awards.
“Don’t get me wrong. The food was very good,” said Stanley. “And the ambience and service was good. It’s still one of the nicest pubs in the area. But you couldn’t eat here every day, could you? Not at those prices.”
Stanley believes that the area’s pubs and restaurants are becoming so upmarket that they are often out of reach for ordinary mortals. “Not everyone around here is rich or a film star or works in the City,” he says. “I understand actors Sadie Frost and Jude Law live locally. I’m not quite sure who they are.
“But the majority of us can’t afford the prices of some of these up-market establishments. And what about council tenants and people who live in housing association developments?
“Where can you get a cheese ploughman’s lunch and a pint these days? Do they still serve them in Primrose Hill? I think we should be told.”
Over in Islington Stanley’s son, Boris Johnson, MP, Shadow Conservative spokesman for higher education and president of Islington Conservative Association, goes to the Duchess of Kent pub in Liverpool Road for sausages and mash or fish and chips.
“I’m not interested in food reviews and people who bore for Britain about food, but I know what I like,” he said. “Give me a decent Shepherd’s pie or sausage and mash. I take my wife and four kids to the Duchess and it’s always very nice.”
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