Epiphany

I had a vision this morning, somewhere in the hazy part between sleeping, waking and hitting the snooze button on the alarm for the second time (not as easy as it sounds, as I actually have to get up to do that).

Loughborough needs a street café. Right in the town centre, in the square, it needs a continental-style bar & café. It needs to be dark wood and ornate beer pumps inside its poorly-lit interior, while the outside tables on the square itself will have parasols and be interspersed with gas heaters for the colder parts of the year. It'll serve Belgian, German and Dutch beer from the tap or bottle, by the pilsner glass. There'll be food- oh, how there'll be food: uitsmijters, pannekoeken and tostis, along with broodjes, vlammetjes and bitterballen for lighter snacks, and stamppot or boerenkool for heavier, heartier meals. There'll be table-service, even outside, and tabs will be paid at the end of the customers' stay.

Of course, I have no illusions that it wouldn't work in the UK. Importing the beer would be a nightmare, people would balk at paying a couple of quid for what looks like a half of lager, they'd try to skip out of paying, the furniture would be destroyed and/or lifted in short order, and it'd interfere with the town market. But still, in my mind, it's a bloody good idea, and the government did say they wanted a shift from old pubs and bars to a European café culture. Maybe I ought to look into a small business loan...