The Evening Star

Doesn't really matter what other pubs we experiment with - the one in Seven Dials we liked for a bit - currently the Brewery Tap - we always return to the Evening Star. Was there last night for the first time in don't know how long. It never changes, the same rotund middle age men (of which I am one I suppose), the same hard uncomfortable benches, the same slightly wet toilets (well, the floor of anyway)... but there is something comforting about the place. The first pub I drank in in Brighton when I moved down on December 30th 1999 (as opposed to other pubs when visiting). I remember we met Paul A's brother here when he came to visit... though I don't remember much about him, or when this was... Poor Paul, lost to schizophrenia in some home up on Cromwell Road. This used to be the pub of Brighton's best years (though not necessarily the happiest) when everything was still achievable, and we were still aglow with the (admittedly by then fading) rays of youth. We could have been anything we wanted but we chose to drink real ale instead.