Traditions

We mainly avoid the whole tinsel and tree affair of this time in December.

But we did really want a proper Panettone, from the best Italian deli you can imagine:  Licata, in Picton Street.

I've been buying Panettone, on and off, from here for 25 years or so.

But it's not just that - it's Sicilian fennel sausage, the best pasta, Italian cheese, huge bunches of basil and what have you.

It's a bit of a hike from home (I used to live a much shorter walk away) so we got the 15:46 train to Montpelier station and ambled down from there.  There's something lovely about the architecture of that area: it's really easy to read its history in its buildings.  It only takes about 10 minutes to fill your basket, pay and pack shopping bags and be on your way - and it's astonishingly reasonably priced.  By 4:10 we were approaching Basement Beer.

We were delighted to see the little "nook" was unoccupied, the only other customer at the time was a chap sitting facing the bar.

There was something lovely about settling into our "usual" seats, repacking our bags to rationalise what we'd bought - mind you there wasn't really anything sensible we could do with the stupidly long leeks!

We drank, variously, a 4%ish pale ale, a stout, a sour and an NEIPA - all really enjoyable.  As people drifted in, the atmosphere became noisier but the nook still allows you to hear each other.  There was plenty of Talking Heads to be heard (and we discussed what era each was from) and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there, once again.

It's lovely to be able to support small brewers/pubs - and when they're as good as this, it's really no hardship to do it.

Today, I'm hoping we can revisit Unwins because...well, just because, really.