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The first Pitcher & Piano opened in 1986 down in Fulham. It was right up there as a pioneer of the design-driven, polished wood, glass and steel style that can be seen in so many of today's bars and restaurants. A small chain of P&P's spread across the south-east, but it never really rode the wave like All Bar One or Slug & Lettuce. Now, its new, corporate owners have decided the time is right to give it an injection of capital and to roll it out across the country, reaching Chester in the summer of 2008.
The Chester location has the good sense to be part of the same building as a hotel, opposite one of our major tourist attractions and over the road from a busy night club. This gives it plenty of passing trade, as well as making it an ideal warm-up for the regular crowd making its way onto Cruise.
This is a typical modern kind of place. Big and high-ceilinged, its designers have made a good job of giving it some element of style and ambience. The bar is long, uncluttered, the focal point of the room. It's a place to hang out and survey the room. It also sells drinks. The wine and cocktails are fine but the beer selection is not a strong point. There are no proper ales, although the ever-reliable Budweiser Budvar is available in bottle.
There is a comprehensive menu, but most people come just for a drink. There's a strong cruising vibe, at least at night. In the daytime, eating is more the norm and there are plenty of places to choose to hunker down over your scran. Tables out front, a useful area in front of the kitchen and a rather industrial, though nicely furnished patio in the back. Sadly, it's not just the beer that isn't a strong point - the food isn't either. Both times I've eaten here the food has been pretty dire. A sharing platter - such a great idea if only it was done right - was so bad it had to be withdrawn from the menu, although other, presumably less noxious, platters survive. A hamburger was cooked correctly but its thin, alien, flavour was deeply unsatisfying.
I suspect the problem here is that the kitchen doesn't get a great deal of influence on what they send out. The real work happens in another part of the country and the local chefs just get to heat it up. And this is Pitcher & Piano's dilemma. It comes as a kit. The menu, the decor, the drinks have all been decided elsewhere. No risks are taken. The product must pervade.
There are just two pieces of the package that can be shaped locally. The first is the service. Fortunately, on our visits, this has been first class. Bar and waiting staff are enthusiastic and friendly. One suspects that if only they could have been entrusted with a bigger stake in the venue's operation, they would have made a better job of it than have the suits at Marstons HQ. The second is us, the customers. The P&P proposition stands or falls on the kind of crowd they get in on a Saturday night. As long as this holds up - and for the moment they don't seem to be doing badly, then it will feel like an attractive place to be.
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