People who have traveled across the deserts, tell stories of the heat, the struggles, the hallucinations and the ultimate pleasure of spotting an oasis and drinking its water in the omnipresent heat of the sands. People have written about it, have sung songs and even made movies. Unfortunately I have never experienced that till now, except vicariously. Until I came to London.
Nestled in the concrete desert of central London, midst the rolling buildings of cement and glass, lies a place, small in stature, but an oasis of humanity.
Wrights Bar, is a food joint, situated right next to the main building of the London School of economics and Political science. Its a small place with a seating area for around eight people, but satisfying stomachs (and souls) of more than 800 (gross underestimation) students, laborers and professors (Actually all of them are laborers, Marx et al).
In the desert of black suits, stern faces, and hopeless dreams, this is one place where one is greeted with a genuine smile. A smile of recognition of ancient times. This 15X7 space is where the boundaries of business and family collapse.
The food is simple. Bland English sandwiches and chips, coffee in Styrofoam cups and burgers in paper bags. In the yellow glare of the sandy desert, a sizzler served with a generous topping of love and laughter tastes better than ever! and this place is no different. To compliment the grey gloom of the man made desert, that extra mayonnaise and a reference to you as 'love' is enough to instill a sense of hope in not just your life but in humanity in general. Forgive my frequent references back to Marx, but the great man did show us that economics is the base, and underlying the joy of the well made chips bloodshot by chili sauce, is the fact that one had hardly reduced the weight of the coins in one's pocket!
It is a relief to walk into a lace where the mechanized smiles and robotic greeting of cafe 'chains' is absent. This is not a corporation, this is a family business.This bar does not have stakeholders/shareholders/clients. They have customers, they have regulars and they have people like me who consider them family.
Like all reviews I can end this with a cliched quote of "you wont get it unless you experience it", but I feel that there are oasis of humanity like Wrights Bar, in every area and I urge you go search for them, for the world today needs a bit of humanity and plus you will be liberated from the slave chains of white, green, blue and maroon coffee cups!
Nestled in the concrete desert of central London, midst the rolling buildings of cement and glass, lies a place, small in stature, but an oasis of humanity.
Wrights Bar, is a food joint, situated right next to the main building of the London School of economics and Political science. Its a small place with a seating area for around eight people, but satisfying stomachs (and souls) of more than 800 (gross underestimation) students, laborers and professors (Actually all of them are laborers, Marx et al).
In the desert of black suits, stern faces, and hopeless dreams, this is one place where one is greeted with a genuine smile. A smile of recognition of ancient times. This 15X7 space is where the boundaries of business and family collapse.
The food is simple. Bland English sandwiches and chips, coffee in Styrofoam cups and burgers in paper bags. In the yellow glare of the sandy desert, a sizzler served with a generous topping of love and laughter tastes better than ever! and this place is no different. To compliment the grey gloom of the man made desert, that extra mayonnaise and a reference to you as 'love' is enough to instill a sense of hope in not just your life but in humanity in general. Forgive my frequent references back to Marx, but the great man did show us that economics is the base, and underlying the joy of the well made chips bloodshot by chili sauce, is the fact that one had hardly reduced the weight of the coins in one's pocket!
It is a relief to walk into a lace where the mechanized smiles and robotic greeting of cafe 'chains' is absent. This is not a corporation, this is a family business.This bar does not have stakeholders/shareholders/clients. They have customers, they have regulars and they have people like me who consider them family.
Like all reviews I can end this with a cliched quote of "you wont get it unless you experience it", but I feel that there are oasis of humanity like Wrights Bar, in every area and I urge you go search for them, for the world today needs a bit of humanity and plus you will be liberated from the slave chains of white, green, blue and maroon coffee cups!
