Petit annoyances: It’s Noel from Paris’ table.
Friday, August 20, 2010 at 2:03PM Meeting for a 6 o’clock pint with a friend became an etiquette conundrum when our table had the (pictured) ’Noel from Paris - 6.30’ sign slapped across the table of the Primrose Hill Pub like a big middle class V sign.
Anyone who adds a ‘from Paris’ to his title must have some chutzpah, and some considerable trumping pub gravity, so who were we to quibble? But not only were we already seated at said table, but at 6.10, when Noel’s group – minus the man himself - began circling, we knew The ‘Er, the tables reserved for half six there mate’ was about to be crowed. Sure enough it came. ‘O.k we’ll move at 6.30’ my friend responded ‘When Noel from Paris gets here’.
The result was incendiary; members of the group started sitting on the end of the table and talking loudly about rudeness and how many people were attending their local, others just leant in a bit close whilst tossing wasabi nuts into their gaping beaks.
Surely some protocol here, non? First a slab of middle class trumpery, then the awkward bubbling battle of wills about when to leave a pre-booked table...
Sacre bleu!
Reader Comments (9)
There's a definite quiet riot in the mix when the middle classes disagree about something with a whole heap of indefinables. Drinking in Primrose Hill and you're asking for it.
An outrage sir!
(Hmmm thinks to self ... sounds like a plot for a movie)
Date Night
Call me old-fashioned, but I don't hold with this modern practice of reserving tables in pubs anyway. Chiefly on the grounds that it's a sodding pub. Remember, pubs? Where random people come and go and mix with each other? As opposed to restaurants, where you go and stay in one set group? Now we have restaurants and cafes at which one is forced to mingle on communal benches, and pubs where Noel from Paris and his amis demand une table. This country!
Who would even consider reserving a table in a pub anyway, and when did it become modern practice?
Sorry to buck the trend here, but given Noel's country of residence is it not remotely possible he was in fact THE Noel. As in No-el? You know, Father Christmas? Might be a clue as to why the rest of his party were so excited, no? Bloody hell, Santa, in Primrose Hill.
Perhaps name and place of origin have an effect on the protocol of when to leave a pre-booked table. For example if you are Noel from Paris then you might expect people to leave your table at, say 6.10, whereas if you were Pierre from Paris other people should not sit at your table in the first place. Dave from Norwich or Tracey from Barnsley should probably expect people to be still sitting at their table at 6.45.
I think you should be allowed to throw wasabi peas (although pork scratchings would be more pleasing) at people who pre book tables in pubs.
Booking a table in a pub? They didn't even have a proper reserved sign? Just a scrappy little beer mat with Noel's name on it?
Pfffft I'd have told the numpy who said it was ok to book tables in a PUBLIC HOUSE to naff right off, not Noel from paris.
I am enjoying the irrational anger about this topic, and I also share it. Sheila might I suggest throwing another familar pub item, such as stools? I suppose darts would be going a bit far.
Any chance of knowing what pub this happened in ? I live in Primrose Hill and would be keen to avoid it. Give us a clue ( I know most of them ).