I’ll get the criticism out of the way first. I had to get my own vinegar for my chips. Well, I didn’t have to. I could have waited, but I did get it myself in the end, ducking under the stairs by the bar to retrieve a bottle of Sarson’s.
I think it was because I wanted to help out. Because the cooking at the Parkers Arms, named last week as the best gastropub in the whole of the UK, makes you feel that way. It’s food to feel thankful for, not entitled to. I wanted to give something back, in this case, saving them a job. A very, very small job, but a job nonetheless.
Other than the vinegar incident - glad to get that off my chest - the rest of lunch last week was as close to country pub perfection as you could hope for. Set on the edge of the Trough of Bowland, outside Clitheroe, chef Stosie Madi, her business partner Kathy Smith, and Kathy’s brother, ebullient front of house maestro AJ, run things at this handsome Georgian inn on the green, where they set up shop 15 years ago.
