"Sohohos" drabbles by Neville Hunt

Rudegantino’s

Sohohos #2

Close to the Coach and Horses pub was Italian restaurant Rugantino’s. We ad agency lads were in the habit of lunching in London’s Soho. Today it would be Rugantino’s. The food was OK, fairly standard of its type, but the service was appalling. Our waiter was surly to the point of rudeness and the food was very late... and even ad agencies had limits on lunch hours!

Finally he brought the bill for food plus service charge, which I promptly deleted. As we walked away down Romilly Street, the waiter came after us, rudely gesturing, murder in mind. We ran!

Spectator sport

Sohohos #1

Whilst for others, life might be an uphill struggle to the top, his was a downhill struggle to the bottle. Well-known in London’s Soho, he was known to more via his ‘Low Life’ column in the Spectator magazine where he chronicled his daily bouts of intoxication in the Coach and Horses public house.

We decided to go and see if the famous man himself would be propping up the bar. We wanted to test out too whether the landlord really was the rudest in Soho as rumoured.

A double yes. We left at the double, doubling up with laughter.