It’s our round, but O’Hooley and Tidow are on the so drinks. “We’re taking a break from drinking at the moment,” Belinda O’Hooley tells me. It seems strange timing, given that she and her partner Heidi Tidow are about to embark on a 30-day tour of real ale venues up and down the country. “We’re absolutely madly passionate about the real ale revolution, and what that means,” she says. “The spirit of the small people who are saying goodbye to the corporate nature of the pub business and brewing beer and taking it into their own hands. But us ourselves, we decided to take a bit of a break from it, so going into these real ale venues is going to be torture!”
PHOTO BRYAN LEDGARD
At least they know they won’t have any nasty hangovers to contend with. “I would say the best advice with Heidi is never to have a drink because I don’t know what it is about her but one time, she can have two or three pints [and] she’s fine. Another night, she’ll have a couple of pints – maybe only one – and she’ll wake up in the morning with the worst hangover. Literally, a hangover from hell,” O’Hooley says, to protests from Tidow. “Not a er one!” “Well, two then…” O’Hooley chides. What is the ultimate hangover cure, then? “It’s really weird,” says Tidow. “But about midday, a big bag of ready salted crisps. That seems to do the trick.”