Well, what d’ya know? For nearly three years The Significant Other and I have enjoyed the Gharb Rangers Bar’s hospitality, whether that’s on the upstairs terrace with fresh fish whilst gazing across open countryside to the Ta Pinu Basilica or winter-wrapped over a delicious pizza in a damp wet February (only 60 miles from Italy, pizzas here are cooked to perfection) alongside a heater to drive the chill from the limestone arches. We’ve found though that whatever the weather, the Rangers welcome is always wonderfully warm, and it’s our favourite haunt for all of us: The Daughter has a Rangers top, the Father-in-Law sports their scarf and I never say no to homemade apple crumble. Oh, and there’s an excellent selection of real ale and single malts.
Front of house, David’s broad smile and laid-back charm is infectious, his professional staff are equally friendly – I’m particularly fond of Dora from Marsalforn – and every so often Miriam the culinary master pops out of the kitchen, her ‘Rangers-blue’ eyes a-twinkling. And perhaps because of the easy relationship apparent between them, The Significant Other and I assumed that they were married.
It was a surprise therefore to walk in the other day to see emblazoned on a T-shirt across David’s chest the words ‘The Chef is not my wife.’ I was wide-eyed in disbelief: had they had a terrible fall out? But no! David explains he wears this every so often as he is not and has never been married to Miriam although we were not the first people to make assumption! In fact Miriam is his sister-in-law, her fair colouring a match to ‘the real wife’ whom we then had the pleasure of meeting with David – twice, by chance, the following day: if it wasn’t for the fortuitous T-shirt we could have been jumping to a whole new set of wrong conclusions. I idly wondered whether perhaps we should all have clothing to occasionally lay out our position in the world; The Significant Other is already ahead of the game on this, often sporting a favourite Calvin & Hobbes number declaring ‘I’m Significant’. He says he’ll be wearing it to Rangers the next time we go so there can be no mistake!
