A right nice pint

Oh, how I laughed when the rank and file of CAMRA (the Campaign For Real Ale) went against Head Office by proclaiming that planning permission should be required for pubs selling food. These members, the Tolpuddle Martyrs of the drinks industry, are forever lamenting the demise of the workaday pub.

Their stance is that pubs should remain more or less the same as the day they were created, and for time immemorial. Which is fair enough but for the relatively recent innovations of electricity, hot and cold running water and internal loos.

Pubs are meant to be the hub and heart of the community, servicing that community's needs and adapting to its changing demographics. And if the Anglo-Saxon pygmies in charge of marketing real ales were to provide environments that young people wanted to visit, they might be able to reverse the declining sales of ales across the country.

Kent brewer Shepherd Neame has attempted its own brand of modernity in this recent acquisition and renovation of the former Goose & Firkin pub in the far flung reaches of Borough. And their interpretation should appeal to a new generation of ale drinkers. It's an unfussy, clean-cut affair with the now ubiquitous bleached-blond wood, and a parade of picnic tables under parasols at the front of the pub.

Beer is at the forefront with their own brews of Spitfire, Masterbrew and Early Bird on offer, plus Oranjeboom Pilsener, Wieckse Witte, Leffe Blonde and Belle Vue Kriek. All marvellous stuff, then. And there is a fabulous range of bottled European beers in Affligem, Chimay Rouge, Duvel and Belle-Vue Framboise; good Brit beers in Shepherd Neame's own Bishop's Finger, 1698, Sun & Planet and Whitstable Bay organic ale; and the US giant Sam Adams. Oh, and curiously, there's Smirnoff Ice.

Food, in the form of traditional pub grub - ploughman's lunches, bangers and mash, fish and chips, and ham, eggs, chips and peas - is reasonably priced at around £6 per plate, but only served at lunchtimes. Why not in the evenings? I asked. 'Because the chef goes home at 3pm.'

A table of punters outside the pub had treated themselves to a feast of fish and chips from a nearby takeaway. So we did the same and had a slap-up chip supper. If the staff had caught us, they might have had a word. But this was a needs-must situation.

A good effort, then, from Shepherd Neame, in dealing with this modern pub malarkey. CAMRA members will probably lobby to keep evenings a food-free zone. And as for their next protest? Something along the lines of, 'Keep Young People Out Of Our Pubs', no doubt.