Perhaps you have noticed that the Olympics are all over television these days. In keeping with the Olympic spirit, Date Night heads to a British pub for this week’s festivities. So you feel as if you are really in England, we’ll also sprinkle in a couple of pictures of British scenes this week. Pour yourself a Pimm’s Cup and join us for a pint and a jolly-good meal as we go for the gold in the Windy Hill area.

The Rose and Crown used to be a La Madeleine, but has done much better than the previous establishment. Every time we drive by, the place is packed, and even though we are there early tonight, there are a lot of people here from the nearby office buildings in the Powers Ferry area.

To complete our Olympic theme, the games are playing on the plasma TVs sprinkled throughout the restaurant.

We start things off with a pint, which we upgrade to 24 ounces.

I get a “Dark Castle”, which is a Black and Tan made with Guinness and Newcastle instead of the customary Bass Ale. It’s nice and cold on a hot and humid day. Eve goes with a very English beer, a Boddington’s Ale from Manchester. It’s the same creamy consistency of a Guinness, but much lighter in colour (note the British spelling).

It’s time for some food, and we start things off with the English meat pie. It’s the same filling as shepherd’s pie, but they put it in a flaky pastry instead of over potatoes.

One of us stays English for the main course, and the other strays a bit. I go for the bangers and mash, true British comfort food.

This is a very large order of food, and it’s good, but I decide the bangers are not completely cooked and I send it back to make them a little less pink. When the plate returns, it is full again, even though I have already eaten a lot of it.

Eve resists the fish and chips and orders a healthy meal. She goes for the veggie plate, where she gets to pick four side dishes.

She picks well, choosing the three-cheese macaroni and cheese, asparagus, green beans, and fried sweet potatoes.

The fries are really good, as is the mac and cheese. The veggies are crisp and plentiful. As with the bangers and mash, there is a lot of food here. One of us is going to get a great lunch on Monday at work, and no, you can’t have a bite!

We usually have dessert on Date Night, but we have a big bike ride coming up the next day. Since we are in “training” for that ride, we will do without the sweet stuff tonight. We leave the Rose and Crown with our styrofoam box and two full tummies. The Olympics are on in a couple of hours, and we’ll spend the rest of Date Night watching the games, even though we already know the results.

Rose and Crown’s Web Site