»Blue Point Toasted Lager, Smuttynose

Yet more lager: Blue Point Toasted Lager, Smuttynose Portsmouth Lager; and the Smuttynose Old Brown Dog. If I were not so busy dousing myself with Frank's Red Hot I probably would have enjoyed the first two more, but they did admirable and tasty duty fending off horrible burns on my face as I ploughed through a plate-full of allegedly medium-strength chicken wings.

I have recently come to enjoy lager much more, perhaps after a summer of a warm, humid climate; the easygoing taste of an American lager, especially some of the more carefully-made lagers, really does please the palate and the person of an afternoon. The lighter taste also suits the sort of food I ate last night ("bar food", I suppose); lagers do not have the cloying sweet taste of stronger ales, and do not get in the way of fried.

One episode escaped my mind from last night: just as we sat down and were tucking in to the first (for Anna, only) pint, a kerfuffle drew our attention to the door, and we immediately heard the waitress holler "They went to the left!". Indeed they had: a passel of ruffians exited stage right, headed at a high rate of speed to parts unknown. The hefty bartender and manager scrambled after them, and the waitress calmly explained to us that we had witnessed a dine-and-dash — more insultingly, they had also taken food from others' plates. Everyone returned a moment later, and pockets-full of change emptied onto the counter, and the halcyon evening returned.