The Market House, Bridport: "The sort of place that I would take my Mother for lunch."

PURELY in the interests of informing the readers of this site what-is-what, I managed to bluff my way through the security cordons and gain admittance to the new Market House pub in Bridport this morning.

I must have been in luck because I not only did I get in, but I managed to down a pint before the mounted police arrived. So, all-in-all a fairly successful outing around the town.

Now, whatever you might be expecting from the successor to the Royal Oak, you would be wrong: it is much better than I, or you, would have dreamed possible. In fact I shall go back, even when I can’t blag myself one on the house and that is saying something when it comes from the town’s premier soak, bore and general down-at-heel undesirable.

In fact it is the sort of place that I would take my Mother for lunch and that is saying something since the old girl usually forgets her teeth along with her cheque book, so I normally end up getting stumped for the whole lot.

The décor is attractive and yet strangely unobtrusive, I might say if I were writing for some poncey colour supplement, but I’m not, so I’ll just tell you that it looks pretty good on the inside. In fact it looks better in there than it does from the outside when you’ve got your nose pressed up against the windows trying to sneak a peep.

The prices are surprising as well: pretty much in line with what others charge - and a good deal less than a fair few – for the wallop, and the grub looks to be pretty much in-line with other nosh houses that don’t exactly stick their fodder in a trough and supply you with a sheet of newspaper to eat off.

It opens on Wednesday and I shall be stepping in there at some time for a drop of IPA, so don’t forget to greet me with the traditional line: “You are The Red Bladder, what are you having?”

Editor’s Note: The Red Bladder was attending an event organised for Palmers Brewery by Watershed PR, which company is run by the wife of the editor of this site. I have made some minor changes to punctuation, but otherwise the Red Bladder’s words and opinions are entirely his own (as they always are).