Porter

There are pints that remind you why you really, really like beer. I had one of those yesterday.

Situated in that pretty part of Islington behind Upper Street and by the canal, St Peter's Street is full of those stucco-fronted Georgian townhouses you feel obliged to glower into as you pass by. You know the type - kitchen in the basement, elegant sitting room on the ground floor giving way to an airy dining room that in turn looks out onto a leafy garden. And on that street is The Duke of Cambridge, perhaps the most fervently bourgeois establishment in all of London.

Pretty much everything at the The Duke of Cambridge is organic. That's their shtick. To be fair, their commitment can hardly be questioned. If you're interested, you can read about the long list of achievements they've made in that field on their website. The one we care about is the beer offer: the cask ales come from Pitfield Brewery in Essex (formerly of Shoreditch), with lagers (light and dark) from Freedom.

As we were shown to a table for a late lunch on Saturday afternoon, I glanced sideways toward the bar and spotted Pitfield 1850 London Porter on handpump. So the default option of sharing a decent bottle of wine between two wasn't on the cards. Sorry, love. It arrived at my table looking just perfect. The waiter probably thought I was nice but dim when I made such a fuss of it. Dark and smoky and licoricey and somehow meaty, the influence of an antique recipe came through. As well as being sufficiently organic to supply this pub, Pitfield are also known for brewing beers from the past (I've written about their efforts here, here and here).

Alongside classic pilsner, porter is my favourite beer style. And that was the best draught porter I've ever had, no contest. So when I took a long draw from the glass I knew that whatever happened today, things would be fine.

I have to warn you: The Duke of Cambridge is definitely one of those places that could be accused of being "more a restaurant than a pub". And it isn't cheap - you won't get much change from £50 for two main courses and a couple of drinks. But we live in the modern world, not the 1970s, so we don't mind pubs that offer table service and focus on good food, do we? We ate dover sole and a mutton curry, followed by a mammoth cheesecake. It was excellent.