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VERSION:2.1
N:The Market Tavern
FN:The Market Tavern
TEL;WORK;VOICE:020 7408 9281
ADR;WORK:;;7 Shepherd Street, Shepherd Market;W1J 7HR
URL:
NOTE:This is it, then; the end of the Fake Irish Pub. The owners of the O'Neill's chain have decided, in the face of an impending recession, that the future does not lie in chain outlets of plastic bonhomie, but rather upmarket, with big taps selling foreign lager, fancy food (like, ur, fish finger sandwiches for £4), flock wallpaper and lampshades. Oh yes, the Market Tavern has gone all New Baroque: dark fittings, dim lights, wobbly twigs in pots and big lampshades your grannie would be proud of. The biggest innovation is in the presentation of a six-foot high rendering of Michealangelo's David on the door to the gents, his dinky little penis, when viewed from above, solving the conundrum of why male members in classical sculpture are so small; any bigger and it would look like a slab of salami flopping over two plums, which may please those committed to verisimilitude in art, but as something viewed on the front of a toilet door would look pretty damn ugly. David aside, most of the drinkers present seem not to have realised that it's no longer an O'Neill's, and consequently appear to think that screaming to make themselves heard over the usual O'Neill's 130Db crap is mandatory pub behaviour, even though the music is now at a far more mellow volume, and is probably a yawnsome Back To Mine collection trying desperately to make us feel relaxed and funky. Much as The Market Tavern is a vast improvement on its previous incarnation, this is nevertheless a predictable refit in a style we're all going to quickly get sick of.
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