8.30 P.M. THE IVY

8.30 P.M. The restaurant is full. Eight thirty is the most popular time for dinner in Britain. By some sort of national osmosis we’ve decided that this is the ideal time to eat. If we were in France we would be thinking about where to go; in Spain we’d still be in our socks and underpants watching the beginning of a movie on television, confident that we’d be able to see the end before dinner time. If we were in the American Midwest we’d just be finishing our decaffeinated herbal tea and calling for the bill. But here eight thirty is when convention, digestion and baby-sitters say we should eat.