Our second day in London was spent at the British Museum, which in large part is a giant collection of really amazing things my ancestors "obtained" from other parts of the world when Britania ruled the waves.
Parthenon? "You Greek blokes won't be needing them statutes will you? Right, here's three shillings. Be good fellows and load them on the boat for us."
Rosetta Stone? "You Froggies took that from the locals, did you? Well then, hand it over 'fore Lord Nelson gives you a belly full of grapeshot!"
Seriously, the British Museum is an important and wonderful place, but by the time the day was over we were pretty zonked so we decided to stay close to our hotel for dinner. There isn't much near our hotel, but between the Tube and where we are staying is a little place called "Yard" which boasts a sign (which you can sort of see in the bottom left hand corner of the picture) stating it's the best new gastro pub of 2010 ("it's just a fancy new name for casual dining," muttered my wife, in a moment of extreme Italian culinary conservatism).
I still don't know exactly what a gastro pub is, but it apparently doesn't have anything to do with beer, as Yard had exactly 4 beers on the menu (all bottles), one of which was actually hard cider. That said, we had a great little meal, and one that was a refreshing change up from standard English fare.
First of all, Yard is in a really cool space with lots of exposed brick that was once a fire station. Because of the interior lay out of the building, however, service was definitely a challenge for the staff because the kitchen is in back of the building and accessible only through the crowded dining area. The bar (a refrigerator, a station to mix drinks, and not much else) is off to one side, and the lone till was on the far wall across from the bar. That said, the staff was not only very friendly, but also extremely hardworking and they made it work just fine.
As at Mennula, R&B was the choice of music, which was just fine with us as it is one of the few types of music both my wife and I enjoy.
The centerpiece of Yard's menu is gourmet pizza which is served by the "yard." I still am not sure how they measure, because the 1/4 yard pie looked like it was bigger than 9" across, but I could be wrong.
Anyway, we had a 1/4 yard pie with caramelized onions, a reduction of balsamic vinegar, and oregano. It was absolutely delicious, though my wife would like to have seen just a bit more brown along the edge of the crust. Still, a very minor point.
I also had a delicious goat cheese salad, which was good-sized, with plenty of fresh goat cheese. delicious. My wife ordered a salad nicoise, which is tureens, Leon potatoes, tuna, hard boiled eggs and olives, dressed with a lovely vinaigrette. We both liked our salads a lot, and were grateful for a meal based around fresh vegetables, which is not exactly standard English fare (:<).
To drink, I ended up having 2 pints of Ichiban and my wife had a glass of a reasonably good (and reasonably priced) montlepuciano.
Total tab, including a generous tip for very good service, was 40 pounds (a bit north of $65), which was a bit high, but this is London and you can't get a decent cup of coffee here for less than $4.
All in all, we had a really good meal at Yard and will probably swing by once more before we come home.
I couldn't find a website for Yard, but here is a Google page with a lot of information -
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