The twenty-first of September is a public holiday, which in practice means a long weekend, a full St Julian's, and every restaurant in Paceville quietly hoping it prepared enough.
Holiday weekends are the point in the calendar where walking in stops working. The room fills from about seven and does not really empty. If there are more than four of you, book — long tables are the first thing to go and the last thing we can improvise.
The kitchen runs as normal, from a quarter to noon until a quarter to midnight, holiday or not. Rabbit on, fish depending on the morning, and the autumn dishes starting to appear now that the evenings have cooled.
A long weekend is exactly the right length for a Maltese lunch.
