Dinner with the Grocers

Last night I had the pleasure of dining with a small group in one of the more elevated rooms of the City of London's Grocers Hall. Our host, Rory Macnamara, a Scottish gentleman from Putney, is set next year to become the head of this august livery company and was clearly starting out - in terms of entertainment - as he means to go on.

The wine, (I gather - not partaking myself) was fine, the starter seemed to have delved the very ocean-floor to collect the diverse crustacea on the plate and the pudding - I should really say dessert - reminded me in shape of one of those hats designed by Cecil Beaton for the 'Ascot Gavotte' scene in 'My Fair Lady'.

But we also had the chicken. There was an odd college feel about the chicken: first of all everyone had a leg and given there were forty of us this must be accounted a triumph for genetic modification; secondly there was an obligatory ladle-full of gravy; thirdly, and most peculiarly, the dining-room a couple of floors below was occupied by a large number of yahoos from Oriel College, Oxford and that set a studenty feel on the whole building.

Speaking of Cecil Beaton and sartorial trends, there was an odd feature to many of the men's shirts I had not encountered before - and I don't mean the red wine stain down the front of one of the 'Oryell' men. It was that showing buttons on evening shirts seems to have become de rigeur. And they were proper evening shirts with pleats and what-not - but with the buttons in full light.

When I was first wearing evening dress, having buttons glistening on one's shirt would have been worse than leaving one's flies open.

But while some customs fade others (excluding the chicken) remain. There were a good number of pairs of patent leather shoes on masculine feet, for example, and almost all the 'lovely lydies' wore black - most accessorized by good jewels (i.e. not Boodle & Dunthorne).

Thank you to Mr Mac and the Grocers, whose premises I had not visited before but which, I can now say, are only a little less grand than the true Grocers' Livery Hall in Piccadilly of Fortnum & Mason.