Did you know Keir Starmer loves the Pineapple in Kentish Town (51 Leverton Street, NW5, thepineapplepubnw5.com)? No? Don’t you read? I should probably also tell you his dad was a toolmaker, given he barely mentions that either. The Labour leader — and, unless every pollster in the country is off their nut, the next Prime Minister — has long praised this backstreet, Daphne-blue boozer. He tweets from it, he’s dubbed it his Church, I half suspect he’s moonlighting on the side as its PR. Still, while MPs do from time-to-time namecheck places they’ve walked past once as a salt-of-the-earth play, at least Starmer actually drinks here, coming in after most Arsenal games. “He’s part of the furniture now,” a barman told the Standard last month. And, to his credit, the Pineapple is a solid choice, and not just because it’s within stumbling distance of where he lives. It’s a proper dark-wood, etched-mirror pub, one for the community — there are pub quizzes, happy hours, a decent beer garden (plus conservatory, for when the rain breaks), and fairly-priced pints (under £6). There’s indistinct Thai on offer, at about a tenner a curry. It is, then, a perfect local, one without bells and whistles. What is this telling us about Starmer? That he’s a middle-of-the-road, decent sort, reliable but absent of any fireworks? No, of course not. You just happen to know that already. All this says is that he knows what makes a decent boozer. See also: his other favourites, the Grafton in Kentish Town (20 Prince of Wales Road, NW5 3LG, thegraftonnw5.co.uk) and the Landseer Arms in Holloway (37 Landseer Road, N19 4JU, landseerarms.com).
What the politicians’ favourite restaurants say about them
