This evening we went to meet Shazbop and Champagne Hughie, along with Colin. Our destination was a restaurant in the crypt of a church in Brixton. The place was, until recently, vegetarian but they have recently widened their menu to include some ‘token’ meat dishes…..that’s the kind of place I like!

One of the few things I hate about being a veggie is the way that people think they have to make an effort to create fantastic dishes for meat and fish eaters but that it is completely acceptable to have a ‘vegetarian option’ that has barely been thought about at all. Often the supposed ‘vegetarian option’ has no element of protein and is completely tasteless and dull. I deeply resent the implication that someone who has chosen a vegetarian lifestyle should be regarded as lucky to find a dish on a restaurant menu that has no meat but also no flavour or nutritional value.

It always tickles me pink to see restaurants that operate the opposite way around. A good, yummy range of veggie food and a meat dish thrown in. There was once a great restaurant in the Cowley Road in Oxford that literally had one meat dish on the menu and anyone ordering it had to order on the basis that it was the ‘meat dish of the day’ without any further clue…..see how you all like it!

Sharon chose this restaurant, having been there before, booked it then gave us directions. My heart sank when I realised it was in the basement of a church in Brixton. Over the years I have lived in and around Greater London, Brixton is one of those places where we have had a great time despite the fact that the venue of our evening was in one of London’s most deprived, crime-filled areas. There are three very good music venues there, including the wonderful Brixton Acadamy – an art deco venue that holds around 5000 people, making it suitable for really popular bands that might otherwise play the appalling Wembley Arena. If a tour is announced where the band’s management has chosen Wembley over Brixton, we just won’t go. Brixton will tempt us out.

Another of the attractions of Brixton is the Fridge, now I believe an out and out gay club (well certainly when Sharon and I went there a few years ago to see Marc Almond and David Macalmont it was). Years ago, the first time we went to the venue it was so ludicrously camp there used to be bright white expanded polystyrene everywhere, made to look like ice, a ‘host’ called the Penguin, in a dinner suit who introduced the bands. We went there to see Roman Holliday and had the time of our lives.

When she described how to get to the church, I realised I had made the mistake of walking across the graveyard at that church about 25 years ago on my way to a meeting in Acre Lane. I got inside it and realised I was very frightened because I was surrounded by winos with their cans of Special Brew and Red Stripe and people jacking up in public on the benches. I was completely terrified. I swore never to go across that graveyard again yet here was one of my closest friends advocating going to a restaurant in the basement of the place.

She was right though, the area has now been cleared up and is actually really nice. The church has obviously been able to afford a facelift through its commercial activities – the crypt now holds a restaurant and a nightclub. The food was wonderful and the whole evening had a really gothic feel, with these lovely drippy candle holders adding to the charm.

Brixton is still a mix of good and bad but it is certainly more safe and more appealing these days.

Brixton was also, for those not in the UK, the catalyst for the recent downgrading of cannabis to a class C drug (still illegal but not really policed anymore) after the police in Brixton unilaterally decided to turn a blind eye to smokers and concentrate on more serious drugs and violent crimes instead. This policy has been largely responsible for the safer streets and a better atmosphere. It was broadened to the rest of the country when the anomalies became impossible to justify.

Oh and 'Thanks Hughie for a brilliant evening, the food was wonderful, the company excellent and the whole experience really fantastic'. Hugh insisted on paying for the evening to celebrate his 40th birthday because we paid for him at the Ivy!

As I have sat here typing this, David has just walked in with a cup of cappuccino with a chocolate heart on top.......ahhhhhhh!