"Would you like some more gravy Mike?"

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A local.
A local pub is a British institution, everyone has their local. People walk past many other pubs to go to their local.

It's where your parents had a beer it's where your mates would congregate. As you got older it's where you knew everyone, what you could get away with, what others were "complete dicks" for trying on, a place that was yours.

It's a British thing.
(although Boston is the home of the finest TV local ever sitcomed)

When I moved to Aotearoa New Zealand back in 1996 (oh yeah), I let the concept of "my local" fade away as many Wellington Kiwis seemed to not have that as a concept. Even now mates only frequent places because they have a familial or dollar investment.

Back, in my late Welsh teens, we all had a mate who's father owned a pub. We rarely went, it wasn't our local.

Golding's Free Dive was the first bar that I thought of as my local. I knew the staff, they knew me, I would work there, I would catch-up with everyone there. We got older together and as happens we evolved and moved on.

The second "local" I ever had in AoNZ was "Thirsty Thursday". That's a place and time for another post.

The Welsh Dragon Bar - yes, it used to be toilets, for fucks sake, 1964 it stopped washing your piss away - sorry, it's just so boring to hear about it being toilets, 60 years later.

It has been various venues, one I believed was the "Indian Taj Mahal" restaurant. However this building has been called that since it was designed so maybe not an actual restaurant, LOL.

Oh, before I move on, The Pooh Bear Club, 1967 declared an independent state by sitting on top of the "Taj Mahal". And the Pooh Club, a student club, included a glorious woman that I have grown to know. I am still so impressed.
The 'Pooh Bear Club' on top of the Wellington 'Raj Mahal' toilets in May 1967
So here I am, writing this post on a Sunday afternoon having had a roast beef meal, a pint, in a bar that I could photo and you would not know I wasn't already in Wales.
Roast beef lunch in a Welsh bar
It looks the part.

But that's not a local, how many 'Irish bars' have you been in and thought, "yeah, ok, why not, meh".

As I was having my dinner, Andrew, in a broad Welsh accent asked,
Mike, would you like some more gravy?
This is a local.

And they know it, or more specifically they know what it means to be honoured with the word, "local"
what it means to be a local
We pride ourselves on being a proper local pub ...
The best local in AoNZ, gold winner, The Welsh Dragon Bar.

(btw: their music playlist is THE BEST!)
10a Cambridge Terrace, Mount Victoria, Wellington 6011, New Zealand

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