Like the venerable Clock Hotel a few blocks away, and even the White Horse (now, the Horse), even closer, the Forresters has stood the test of time. I’m sure it’s been through management changes over the years. Gone is the Jamaican restaurant, Queenies, that I always meant to get back to (it seemed to have stopped around September 2017, though their Facebook page is still up). What I remember (accurately?) is that the Forresters was the place that started the $5 steak craze. A perfectly good piece of meat, served up with a sauce, and a crowd of people (but not too bad) eating meat. I always thought it was an interesting business model, as other pubs copied the idea, and then rules were put on (that you had to order drinks along with it) and then the prices went up ($6, $8, $10?) and then the deal disappeared.
Or so I thought. But Monday night, the Forresters has BROUGHT BACK the five dollar steak. I was hungry and too lazy to cook, and you know, for that price, the meat was perfectly acceptable, the mushroom sauce was crude but savoury, and I should have ordered a side ($5) to go with it, but I was so traumatised by how boring my body corporate meeting was (and badly chaired) that I didn’t even ask about sides. I just ordered the steak and a glass of pinot noir ($8) and consumed them while a song from Grimes played over the sound system and all of us basked in pink neon light and the light from the TV projections.
Meanwhile, the not-beautiful photo at the top makes me excited. Why? Because I am getting a new iPhone soon … and all my photos on food blogs are suddenly going to be so much better.