Most Saturday lunchtimes I can be found in Cambridge Market Square in Don's. Like Domenic's, Don Pasqualez's is a Cambridge institution. This place has just had it's 35th birthday under the ownership of the same Italian family.
I am a relative newcomer to Don's with just 23 years custom but my family and I always receive a warm welcome. There is always a Peroni and double espresso on the bar waiting for me and a plate of excellent Italian food with a great house red.
Whatever the local council try to do (whether Labour or Liberal) to destroy this place with their exorbitant hikes in business rates, the bar survives - bolstered by it's loyal customers.
Mario runs the coffee and beer, Kim the tills and the beautiful waitresses, and Paskie the kitchen. The place is pure theatre, with barked instructions, frantic scenes in the open kitchen and friendly abuse of the customers. They must turn out hundreds & hundreds of pizzas every Saturday to a clientele of slack-jawed tourists and hard bitten regulars.
Over the years the waitresses seem to have grown younger and more beautiful and Kim more gnarled and yet more relaxed. Kim and I share the same birthday and we have never missed having a quiet beer together in the gloomy appreciation of time moving on.
Lynnie is on her way here from the hairdressers (we are out tonight at Big Jim's for his birthday BBQ) so I shall post this before she gets here.
If you are ever in Cambridge, pop into Don's and have a beer and espresso - the best in Britain.
Excellent stuff - it's on my list for the next time I'm in Cambridge! Is CB1's still going? That was just out of town by the swimming pool. I used to love that place - happpy times!
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