The Eagle in Farringdon used to be next door to the old Guardian offices. I remember eating there back in the early 1990s, when it was offering something of a new approach to dining. A Portuguese-influenced menu was scrawled on a blackboard, and it was exciting and fresh. Placing your order was always a bit of a pain – you had to jostle your way to the front of the always crowded bar, then struggle to make your order heard over the noise endemic to pubs with no soft furnishings – and the many people intent on prioritising drinking over eating. But The Eagle became an institution, and (although I’m not sure this is the case) it is reputed to have been the UK’s very first gastropub. 

The changing economics of war

No one seems sure why Olly Robbins had to go

‘Tea-towel-gate’: another British travesty

Nowadays, there are of course gastropub awards, and even Michelin stars bestowed upon the likes of The Sportsman in Kent: a place with excellent, inventive food, and the atmosphere and décor of a caravan........

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