The Old Vic, Portsmouth
Cheers, that iconic American sitcom of Boston bar life, has a real-life rival right here in Old Pompey.
Well, OK, so there's no Ted Danson or wise-cracking Norm propping up the bar, no Carla to deliver your order with a caustic comment.
But there are comparisons to be made when entering the Old Vic Pub near the University of Portsmouth.
'The pub where everybody knows your name,' the Cheers theme song, rings in your ears, most people coming in given the first name treatment, their drinks with them in nanoseconds by the Carlas and Teds who staff this Best Bar None 2008 Best Community Pub winner.
Even I, and others who staggered in from light, bright St Paul's Street to the dark recesses of this rather murky pub with its dark wood, dark flooring, dark bar and ersatz low gas lighting, are met with genuine hospitality.
They smile. They help. And don't turn their back on you in favour of their named regulars.
With not a vestige of pretence to modernism, the Old Vic is the antidote to the Wetherspoons of this world, its black and white beamed and painted exterior with word-tiled whisky, brandy and Old Tom (who is he?) streetside panelling adding further genuine layers.
Community spirit is the key to its owners and managers. The week's events including live acts, quizzes, pool, bands and DJs, the permanent black staging taking centre stage in the semi-horseshoe-shaped pub. And if it all gets a trifle noisy, nip out to the back to sit in the covered garden.
There's another large sign outside declaring Home Cooked Food, the Pub Grub menu a small one with many ingredients having plural uses, one way of making sure that the kitchen isn't overstretched or stacked with produce it may not be able to shift.
You'll find plenty of burgers, both veggie and meat ones, jackets and tortillas of all sizes and fillings, salads including chicken and bacon or chicken Caesar, chicken, billed as free-range, also to be found in Roisin's Chicken Curry (who is she?).
Sandwiches; ploughman's; chilli bowls; scampi and chips; fish and chips and sausages and chips ('Ye Olde English Favourite') form the bulk of the menu, most dishes around the 5-6 mark.
Specials might include a butternut squash soup with coconut and a macaroni cheese with garlic bread, the latter whizzing out of the kitchen lift by the bucketful.
So nothing to scare the horses then, only the ping of the microwave causing them to jump a tad.
My two dishes were of the uber-hot kind that only a microwave can deliver, the chicken curry with poppadom and mango chutney straight out of the heaven-sent-to-pubs apparatus.
It should have been billed as a chicken and potato curry, the latter outperforming the former, the coconut sauce overly sweet.
A mound of rice came with this, an odd alternative chunky chips. And served in large flat bowl that Granny would have dished up meals in – a flowery white one.
But I bet Granny wouldn't have sprinkled some rather dry-looking unevenly cut parsley over her meals, this touch rather out of keeping with the food style of the place and decade. The Old Vic ain't Refinesville.
Desserts are equally kept on a small scale and, no, the charmingly helpful barmaid with a fine Welshness to her, admitted that Home Cooked Food didn't stretch this far, the chocolate pudding, heated to undiscovered highs by the pinger, was not even trying to emulate anything remotely resembling Granny's or anyone else's home cooking.
One mouthful once it had semi-cooled down told me all there was to know. A no-no food-wise.
The eye-wincing shiny brown mound could have been used as a soft sponge or as extra lighting in the pub's deep recesses.
So, you might not wish to come here for some of the grub but if it's cheer you want of the communal togetherness kind, The Old Vic is hard to beat. Cheers!
My bill came to 10.35 including a warm half pint of local ale.
The Old Vic, 104 St Paul's Road, Portsmouth PO5 4AQ. (023) 9229 7013.
Open from midday-3pm Mon-Fri and Tue-Fri 5pm-8pm for food plus Sunday lunch 1pm-5pm. No food Sat.
Food: ***
Service: ****
Atmosphere: ***
Disabled access: Yes.
How to get there: St Paul's Road is accessed by car from the Kings Road, the pub at the university end of the street. Parking on-street.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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