Jeff Goldblum and Kevin Spacey in David Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow at The Old Vic were stupendous. Mamet’s plays and films are sensational. So it was a no-brainier to go to Glengarry Glen Ross in the West End.
You must have seen the film with Kevin Spacey? The production I saw last week was good but didn’t have the frenetic pace or the in-yer-face of the film. I could hear every word from the back of the stalls but I left feeling that I’d rather have missed a few words in a pacier production. Anyway, when we’ve finished watching Spiral, there is going to be a Mamet film season in Margravine Gardens.
That was all a digression. After the theatre we went to Rules. I hadn’t been for maybe twenty years and had incorrectly formed an opinion that it is wildly expensive and rather touristy. Well, maybe it’s a bit expensive, I couldn’t tell as I was being treated.
My host and hostess were doing dry January which could have put a damper on things. A long time ago a friend’s father told me that he had given up drinking for Lent. He imparted this before lunch while pouring a pretty large glass of Sherry. He explained that by drink he meant gin. That evening he poured himself a stiff Pink Gin. He explained, as if talking to a two year-old, that he had given up drinking gin before lunch.
My hostess is not dissimilar; we both had Dry Martinis to kick off while my host refused the gins and stuck to his guns. The steamed steak and kidney suet pudding was superb. It’s not something that I have ever seen on a menu and it is delicious comfort food to be cherished and washed down with lashings of (red) Côtes du Rhône.
An elderly aunt used to be heard saying ‘dear, dear London’. We assumed she was reminiscing about happy days spent in the capital, it happens she was berating the inflated prices of anything with a SW postcode. £20 for a humble steak & kidney pud does seem a tad dear, my local serves an excellent version, made with the finest Hereford steak and rich, buttery pastry. A snip at £8.
Pastry? Oh no, mine was steamed suet. I wondered if there was enough suet when it was presented. It turned out that there was plenty and I left some steak and suet on my plate but I picked out all the kidney.
For those of us who must work hard for our bread and our board the aforementioned establishment does seem expensive. ‘Rules’ menu certainly rule me out.
For those of us no longer working we now have to pay our restaurant bills. In the good old days, at least I think they were good, it all went on expenses.