The Country Pub is also watering hole to the mink and manure belt's equine peripherals, a motley, wind- and sun-etched assortment of stable managers, farriers, lungers and baiters, and to that particular breed of narrow-eyed, on-the-hustle building contractor, plumber, glazier, thatcher, tiler and painter that makes a living in the unkempt margins of suburbia's borders with the countryside.

It is a customer base that has remained steadfast despite a succession of new owners and managers - most reeking of desperate middle-aged last-shot good intent and, in a few cases, of last night's bar profits.

Through all the upheavals the lacklustre menu has remained pretty much the same, standard pub fare - deep-fried snack basket, steak rolls, eisbein, ribs, Sunday roast - prepared with all the deep indifference an unmotivated staff well used to riding out the brief bustles of new brooms sweeping clean can muster.

A bright and shiny banner on the Country Pub's fence reveals that yet another new owner/manager is putting in a bid to make a real big go of things, this time with a R49 sit-down-only (huh?) offer on a 500g T-bone with chips, onion rings and a side salad.

It's cheap. It's nearby. The menu is uncomplicated. And there's a big screen beaming sport; the Tour de France, to be precise.

A perfect venue then for a fraught Friday farewell to Differ*, offspring number two, who is returning to university in Cape Town laden with costly excess baggage of every kind imaginable - not least having to cope with the drag of those cheap killjoys, the Bandit and the beautiful Distraction.

Oh what a joy, sometimes, to be a parent.

"Shame," the Distraction points out, "their brains seldom work properly until they're 25. In fact, they regress from the age of 15."

Shame indeed.

Three T-bone specials, medium rare. A rock shandy for the Bandit and a beer for the Distraction.

Differ, who knows the happy-hour prices at every drinking and dancing venue on the student strip between Observatory and Claremont, underlines his refusal to treat in an adult fashion the limits placed on his baggage by ordering . a creme soda.

An exciting day in the peleton in the Pyrenees saves the crew from having to make small talk.

The T-bone special is certainly top-notch - for this neck of the woods. The meat is well aged and tender, with even a hint of marbling. And there's a decent hunk of fillet on the T-bones of the Bandit and Distraction, the waiter having easily figured out who pays the bills.

A couple of the golden chips roped in as mops save the steak from being marred by the cheap - contains real cloudifiers - basting sauce.

The onion rings are crisp and the side salad of tomatoes, cucumber, olives, lettuce and feta is beyond reproach.

The meal is excellent value and the service is surprisingly efficient. Good enough even to thaw the atmosphere a little and slightly lift the little cloud hovering above Differ. And hopefully it's happy hour in Cape Town by the time he reads this, the little baggage.

*Differ, because he still begs to.

The Score:

Kyalami Country Pub and Restaurant, corner Cedar and Main roads, Midrand

T-bone special: ****

Damage: Not a bad place to shed some baggage