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VERSION:2.1
N:The Opera Tavern
FN:The Opera Tavern
TEL;WORK;VOICE:020 7379 9832
ADR;WORK:;;23 Catherine St, Covent Garden;WC2B 5JS
URL:
NOTE:Covent Garden watering holes are split, on the main, between so-trendy-it-hurts bars serving watered-down cocktails to yapping media success-stories, and "traditional" pubs creaking under their own fakery, populated exclusively by tourists desperate for a glimpse of the real London. The Opera Tavern, which had the distinction of being bombed by a zeppelin in WWI, veers in the latter direction, but is saved from the dreadful oblivion of simulcraeity by cheerful barstaff, some decent beers and mildly interesting architecture. Shortly after my entrance, where I had taken a table at the back of the pub, an American woman abruptly breaks off from snogging her boyfriend to lean over my table, staring at herself in the mirror behind it. "I love my eyes," she announces, whether to me or her sheepish-looking boyfriend is unclear. "They're so dark, I think they almost make me look Asian." This almost-Asian continues to stand, leaning across my table as if I am not there and admiring herself for long minutes, as I sip my beer and try to look like this sort of thing happens all the time. Eventually, receiving no response either from me or the boyfriend, she gets bored of her own divine appearance and drags him from the pub. Normality returns, at least for a while, as groups of businessmen and the odd set of couples drift in and out, until around about ten, when suddenly the whole pub fills with ACTORS, a rabble of desperate thesps screaming for attention and love, clogging the atmosphere with their needy narcissism and smoking cigarettes lit from the ends of other cigarettes. In no time, the pub transforms into a peculiar mixture of a kindergarten and chemical warfare, forcing me to leave. Not a bad pub, if you can find the gaps between the tourists and the actors.
NOTE:Closed since March 2010
NOTE:Re-opened in January 2011 under new management
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