A shining example of why we will always need restaurants, no matter what. Meanwhile, at least they have a shop ...
As I sat down to write up my review of Fourth and Church, a restaurant, wine shop and deli in Hove, we were, alas, all chivvied back into the house once more. Some of us had never left in the first place. Others, me included, had made an earnest effort, acquiring a semi-regular habit of pulling on newly snug clothes that require buttons before dining in public places, wriggling around the restrictions, and sometimes even clutching a spiral-bound jotter to show that I was definitely “on business”.
I ate in deserted restaurants, in church courtyards, in pub car parks and under hastily hammered-up gazebos, and along the way I tried to count some of the tiny blessings of the new world. And there were a few, such as how restaurants had got much more amenable to wrapping up leftovers in classy doggy bags because they needed to clear you out before the inspectors arrived at 10pm. So, although your night out was more or less scuppered before your bum had really warmed the seat, at least you had a cardboard box of pommes dauphinoise ready for breakfast. Waste not, want not.
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