Mad Dogs & Englishmen March Newsletter

So how do you like it so far? The pub on the corner?

I got talked into doing this newsletter by one of my four closest friends here. We meet very often for dinner and this one friend, whom we shall call George because he's the youngest member of our group, egged me on to the point I thought I would at least try one.

“You’re such a lovely audience; it’s certainly a thrill”…. etc. etc.

It’s not going to be like any other restaurant newsletter. At least, I hope not.  Do restaurants even put out newsletters? It may indeed end up lying under the fish and chips. It won’t have much actual news, no politics or real names. It won’t be trying to sell you anything either. It’s not even going to try too hard to make you laugh. It's just something to browse and then throw away whilst you're waiting for a table or waiting for your husband to get off the phone or something for your kid to draw on if they run out of kids’ menus or even if they don't.  It’s a few rambling observations that might while away a few seconds especially if you are a speed reader or your phone dies.

Once in a blue moon (or midday sun), it might hopefully be informative as in: This week is St Patrick's Day week. So, lots of Guinness and corn beef. A common misconception is that the English are not overly fond of the Irish. Totally untrue. We treated them very badly for one or two centuries but that was the politicians, like always, not the British people. How could you not love the Pogues and the Dropkick Murphys and Brendan Behan and Oscar Wilde? The Irish are fab. 

Lots of references to the Beatles, right? Especially in the old joint, the original Mad Dogs, down the street. The reason the Beatles appear Here There and Everywhere is because, for me at least, they epitomize the name.  When they came out of nowhere in 1962, they were more English than the English and twice as mad.  That was their attraction apart from the songs. Anarchic in a then stitched up world.

If you’ve read this far, you’ve probably figured out I’m one of the owners, the old geezer with his picture up over the bar. The one shirtless. Not my idea, but I like it. Why wouldn’t you? Far too many pictures of me as a matter of fact, but I started the original joint so it was decided that might be good idea.

How did we get here? How did we get here?

I was walking along MacDill Avenue in 1991, broke and bored, when I came upon the original Mad Dogs, then named (bizarrely) Port of Call featuring Miss Magnolia’s Grill with a “For Rent” sign. In a moment of recklessness, I rented it, changed the name, and ended up thirty odd years later with Mad Dogs One, as it’s now commonly referred to. By which time, fond as some of you were of it, it was time to move on. If you want another Beatles analogy, not that I am in any way comparing Mad Dogs to the Beatles….MDE One was like them on the Reeperbahn or in The Cavern, all leather jackets and attitude. Messy but loveable. MDE Two is after Brian Epstein got his hands on them. Bringing out their true potential. Better. Better. Better. At least from where I’m standing.

Perhaps more about the origins of Mad Dogs and Englishmen next time, along with anything else I can think of that might be vaguely interesting. Incidentally, do you like the soundtrack in the bathrooms? What was it the WW1 poet, Rupert Brooke, wrote?

“If I should die, think only this of me: That there’s some corner of a foreign field that is forever England.”

Mind you, he probably didn’t mean the bathrooms.

PS. You will no doubt be pleased to hear that beginning very soon we will be extending our Friday and Saturday hours.

Wilt Morley, Founder