Food - John Harvey Tavern

It’s Badge Night lunchtime and the John Harvey Tavern has started serving this year’s new batch of Bonfire Boy. The place is packed, and there’s a whiff of expectation in the air. People are talking about The Night. I manage to vulture a table, and someone brings the beers. You can taste that Ousey taste you get in Harveys Best, and also that pokey tang you get when bitters go over 5.5%. Nice stuff, though I wouldn’t want more than a couple.
Ben’s sandwich arrives before the other two dishes. It’s an enormous slab full of bacon, chicken and sausage. I’m interested to see how he’s going to tackle it - it’s far too big to fit in his mouth. After a bit of thought he assails it like Nelson at the French and Spanish fleet, all little jabby raids on the side, and the odd full-frontal surprise attack. There are some hairy moments, but he gradually dominates the beast, which keeps me entertained for the ten minutes it takes for my food to arrive. Red wine and venison sausages, chesnut mash and onion gravy. The sausages are something else, with such a gamey taste I’m tempted not to put any mustard on them. The mash has got that homemade feel about it - there are lumps, which I’m not sure about at first, then decide I like. There’s a moat of gravy, too. A pleasing dish - bangers and mash is a surefire hit, however many adjectives you use to describe it. And an apt one, given the occasion. Afterwards we sit with another pint of Bonfire Boy in the car park overlooking the river. Somebody nearby is throwing rookies into the water. Lewes is about to go off. AL