Bars

There are many reasons to admire America, and also a few reasons to disapprove. On the plus side there is free speech, the right to protect oneself, a relatively dynamic economy and 198 versions of beef jerky. On the downside, an inconsistent attitude to turning right at lights, too much fructose and the possibility of a civil war on the way. However, on a recent long trip up the American West Coast, from palm to pine, I came away realizing that America has one great advantage over Europeans: a serious understanding of the concept of eating at bars in restaurants. By which I don’t mean nibbling nuts and necking a

It provided everything a human being requires — and it was a two-minute walk from my house

Is it the best bar in Brooklyn? Certainly

Plastic ashtrays line the tables and bar as a living symbol of Texan freedom

It’s like dropping into the opening scene of an Agatha Christie story: anything could happen

Establishments where writers and reporters liked to drink hold for me a privileged position

The pub has Ireland, and the Irish experience in America, in its DNA

The mere fact it is on that liminal, edgy, Mexico-American borderland adds a definite frisson

I once said when it closes, it’ll be time to leave New York. That was seventeen years ago

What Colony lacks in ash it makes up for with the world’s best pizza, one designed specifically for drinkers

Spare a thought, dear Americans, for the British cost-of-drinking crisis

By the time I hit the ground running in 1956, Orsini’s was jumping

The Post Pub is rumored to be reopening after a tragic dip in drinking saw it flounder