Hidden gem: The Garrison Public House I must have walked by this place hundreds of times but never went inside. I remember a colleague always taking business clients to The Garrison but I never actually paid attention to where it was or what it was like. I just thought it was an average pub near the office as many of them seem to be -- just average.

Mme Andre and I went there the other night for a drink and had a wonderful Argentinian Malbec wine, the bartender even let us sample two of the wines before we went with the Malbec - he was lovely. I think he was enjoying our chat about how terrible our days were...and made us laugh which was a great start to the night.

The menu looks fab but we didn't have reservations so only had a lovely appetizer. Also I wasn't hungry since I over dosed on soup and biscuits during the day - our office has an endless supply of biscuits and I can't seem to control myself! And on Friday's they roll out the trolley with wine, beer and crisps! It is endless! This week am going to nibble on celery and carrots when the biscuit emerge.

We ordered smoked mackerel pate with green tomato chutney & toast...which I actually think was a baked apple chutney as that is what it looked and tasted like, but it was still scrumptious!

A must go - the crowd is chilled and the staff and the kitchen staff and what was coming out of it looked amazing. Definitely will go next time for dinner. And the decor has such a fab shabby chic look to it - I want to furnish my home like that - must learn to paint a chair to look like it is a vintage one...Ms. DeFranco's aunt is a pro at this - need her to teach me the technique as I love it.

Anyhow babbling on...must eat some dinner and start reading my new book, The Sex Life of Food by Bunny Crumpacker (I love this name!) I never thought I would hear of another person called Bunny!