A 3.9 bar and grill whose name pairs two surnames evoking, whether or not it means to, two of history’s most famous privateers
Drake and Morgan at King’s Cross holds a 3.9 from two thousand eight hundred and sixty-five people, is a large bar and grill chain venue, and carries a name that pairs two surnames which, whether by design or accident, evoke two of the most famous seafaring adventurers in British history: Francis Drake and Henry Morgan.
The paired-surname name
“Drake and Morgan” follows the fashionable formula of the paired surname – two names joined by an “and,” suggesting a partnership, a firm, a pair of founders, in the manner of a law practice or an old family business. It is a formula that lends a venue an air of solidity, heritage, and craftsmanship – the implication of two proprietors who put their names to the business and stand behind it. We have seen the instinct throughout both surveys, in the possessive-proprietor names; the paired surname simply doubles it.
Whether there were ever real people named Drake and Morgan behind this chain, or whether the names were chosen purely for their sound and associations, the effect is the same: a name that feels established, trustworthy, and slightly grand, the way “Marks and Spencer” or “Fortnum and Mason” feels. The Prat’s naming desk notes that the paired surname is one of the most reliable ways to manufacture an impression of heritage from nothing.
The two sea dogs
But the specific pairing of Drake and Morgan is irresistibly evocative, because both are the names of legendary sea raiders. Sir Francis Drake was the great Elizabethan sea captain – the second man to circumnavigate the globe, a hero of the defeat of the Spanish Armada, and, to the Spanish, a notorious pirate who raided their treasure ships and ports. He was a privateer, an explorer, and a national hero, knighted by Elizabeth I on the deck of his own ship.
Sir Henry Morgan was the most famous of the Caribbean buccaneers – a Welsh privateer who led devastating raids on the Spanish colonies of the Caribbean in the seventeenth century, sacking Panama and Portobelo, amassing a fortune, and then, remarkably, becoming respectable, knighted and appointed Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica. His name lives on, of course, on a famous brand of rum.
The Prat’s history desk notes that whether or not the chain intends it, “Drake and Morgan” summons two of the greatest privateers in history – men who were heroes to the English and pirates to the Spanish, who raided, plundered, and were knighted for it. It is a name with a salty, buccaneering undertow, whatever the founders may have meant.
The 3.9
A 3.9 across two thousand eight hundred people is a below-average, volume-influenced score – the lowest of this batch. It reflects the familiar pattern of the large chain bar-and-grill: a big, busy, corporate venue serving enormous varied crowds, competent but unremarkable, dragged toward the middle by volume and by the slightly soulless quality that afflicts the larger chains. The privateers’ romance in the name is not quite matched by the experience in the room.
The bar
A 3.9 across two thousand eight hundred and sixty-five people is a below-average, real-sample score. The reviews describe a large, decent, corporate bar and grill – fine for after-work drinks and business, without the character its buccaneering name might promise.
Verdict
A large chain bar and grill whose paired-surname name evokes, intentionally or not, two of history’s most famous privateers – Drake and Morgan, heroes and pirates both – though the corporate experience does not quite live up to the buccaneering romance.
Go for competent after-work drinks, and enjoy the accidental romance of a name that summons the great sea dogs, even if the reality is more boardroom than Spanish Main.
Alan Nafzger was born in Lubbock, Texas, the son Swiss immigrants. He grew up on a dairy in Windthorst, north central Texas. He earned degrees from Midwestern State University (B.A. 1985) and Texas State University (M.A. 1987). University College Dublin (Ph.D. 1991). Dr. Nafzger has entertained and educated young people in Texas colleges for 37 years. Nafzger is best known for his dark novels and experimental screenwriting. His best know scripts to date are Lenin’s Body, produced in Russia by A-Media and Sea and Sky produced in The Philippines in the Tagalog language. In 1986, Nafzger wrote the iconic feminist western novel, Gina of Quitaque. He currently lives in Holloway, North London. Contact: [email protected]
I’ve read this three times and found something new each time. Properly layered.