The Orange, Pimlico: The very model of a modern gastropub

The traditional pub is an endangered species.  The latest statistics from the Campaign for Real Ale say that, on average, 26 a month closed in Britain in the six months leading up to March 2013.

Food has been the saviour of the pubs now in thriving health.

Most people consider the rise of the gastropub a good thing.  Sure, there are a handful of the old guard who miss the local boozer filled with regulars downing pints. But most people appreciate that the conversion of drinking establishments into restaurants with decent food, often with cozy areas still preserved for the business of drinking.  The margin on food, and the higher-margin wines almost always consumed with meals, keep these places from being shuttered.

The Orange in Pimlico is an exemplar of the new breed of gastropub.

Casual drinking and dining happens downstairs; upstairs there's a proper dining room.  The look is casual yet elegant, lots of scrubbed, pale wood in Georgian architecture.  The first floor dining rooms are particularly light and airy, with towering ceilings over what were once gracious drawing rooms.  On sunny days, doors to little false balconies stand open.  With a tree-filled square just across the road, the whole place has a pastoral, Southern European feel.

Logical, then, that the modern European menu has a distinctly Italian undertone.  They have a wood-fired pizza oven and offer both starter and main course sizes; thin and flaky with interesting toppings like aubergine or smoked mozzarella.  Rabbit makes a regular appearance on the menu, as do more unusual pastas and delicate seasonal fish specials.  The wine list is broad enough to be interesting without being overwhelming, and has some quirky, unusual choices.

I've eaten here twice this spring, first for a girls' lunch before the Chelsea Flower Show.  Second for a larger family lunch to celebrate my mother-in-law's 75th birthday.  Excellent meals, beautifully presented, with good service both times.

The drawback, as ever and especially in this part of London, is price.  When I first came to England, pub food was fish & chips, burgers and pies.  Sometimes the food was even good.  But you don't make margin on those sorts of simple meals.  You make it on people who do three courses.

Chilli salt squid with smoked chilli mayonnaise for £8.50, Jurassic Coast rose veal rump for £18.50, a couple of £4 sides, roasted peach with basil mousse for £7.  All consumed by the type of people who like to linger over a meal and tend to sink a bottle each, with probably a £12-20 margin on each.  All of which means a sophisticated, relaxed meal here will easily cost you £60 or £70 once you put in the tip, water and coffee.

And when you're spending that much, you have to ask yourself … should I be spending a little more and going to a proper restaurant?

A lot of this, of course, has to do with the ridiculous costs of doing business in London.  Our local pub, the Four Horseshoes, has food just as good as the Orange.  Minus the pizza oven and with only the most basic of wine lists.  Our bill on a recent visit: roughly half that of The Orange, with the same amounts of food and wine.

The Orange is an elegant, reliable model of the modern gastropub in one of London's most exclusive areas.  Fortunately, it's setting a model that country pubs like ours can follow.