Monday- The Bird in Hand

OK…I’m a bit miffed because I wrote this wonderful post on Monday, only to have the internet kick out on me (and I didn’t notice that it wasn’t saving) and I lost the entire post. This is the short and sweet version (which some of you may be glad of).

Tonight, our big accomplishment is that we went to an English Pub, “The Bird in Hand”. We had heard good things about it from a coworker, and it was close enough that we could walk to it. We were pretty clueless about the whole thing. There are lots of “traditions” in an English pub. They have a set of unspoken rules basically and most people from outside the country…including other Europeans are pretty clueless on their first visit. We were no exception.

First off, there are no waiters. You come in, find a table, figure out what you want and go to the bar to order it. A bunch of blokes casually drinking may strike up a conversation with you while you order, and you are expected to join in the chat. You pay for the meal right then and there. You then return to your table. Then, they bring it out to you when it’s ready. Now, food isn’t ready quickly here in Europe like it is in the states. It took a good 30 minutes (and the pub was pretty empty when we went) to get our food.

Next, we did bring Weslee with us because an English pub is nothing like an American bar…except for the alcoholic beverages part of it. Europeans get “merry”, not drunk. They might have a pint, a little pub grub and call it an evening. You rarely see an English person sloppy drunk. The Americans, on the other hand, have quite the reputation (here and in the states) for overdoing it. However, the English pub is intended to be the “neighborhood living room”. Although there is a bar where alcoholic beverages are served, the atmosphere isn’t wild or crass. It feels like a bunch of friends gathered together for an evening…and some of them just happen to be drinking. Some of you still may be appalled that I brought Weslee into this atmosphere…but to let you know how family friendly it is intended to be…we ordered chicken nuggets off the CHILD’S MENU for Weslee. It’s just the English way of life. Many people in there were drinking lemonade or tea. They did look at us like we were crazy when we ordered water with our meal. Apparently, that just doesn’t happen a lot. Personally, it’s generally too much for me to have fried food (I had the fish and chips) and soda. I would have felt terrible the rest of the evening. As it stood…I felt pretty lousy anyway. I ate probably a pound of fried fish…uuuugh!

The third thing that left us bewildered is tipping. In the USA, you are considered absolutely beyond rude if you stiff someone a tip at a restaurant. As long as the waitress actually brought you food and drinks, you generally tip. Here in the UK, the Brits are more shy about money and you generally don’t tip at a pub. We have found out that you can leave a small tip (we’re talking like 5 percent) if you really enjoyed the food and it won’t embarrass them. But, they’ll just think you insane if you leave much more than that. At the end of our meal, we debated back and forth about the tip. We sat and watched everyone else for a little while and finally noticed that no one was leaving them. So, we didn’t either. I felt so guilty leaving that restaurant, only to find out that what I did is customary. A lot of the Americans here will leave small tips because it saves them the guilt feelings afterwards. We may do this as well.

Anyway, that was our pub experience. We came hungry. We left absolutely stuffed and happy. It was a good experience, and one we’ll probably repeat…next time a bit more confidently.