Pembroke, King Street, Gravesend

EVERY car comes with a new car smell and, if the Pembroke is anything to go by, so do new pubs. This new pub in King Street, Gravesend, has been open for about a month and retains its Eau-de-B&Q.

The smell of freshly sanded and varnished wood wafts through the air and shows no signs of fading.

Drinkers still care enough to dress up to go there and the staff are still at the stage where they will quickly wipe a drip of beer off a tap in case it gets dirty.

There is a sense of the staff trying to make this bigger and better than any other pub in Gravesend.

But the Pembroke follows a precise chain-pub formula.

The laminated menus and posters enticing people to try a coffee are probably the same in every Smith and Jones pub.

The one thing they cannot yet clone for a chain pub is the staff.

They wore their black T-shirt uniform with a certain degree of pride and were all friendly.

My barman even forgot to give me my change and managed to serve another two pints before I got his attention and informed him of his mistake.

He was very apologetic and the pint of Barracuda Bitter for the bargain price of £1.75 almost made up for any annoyance.

It was crisp, refreshingly chilled and went perfectly with my burger.

The beefburger was fairly standard pubfare but laden with enough cheese, bacon and onion rings for me to put any healthy weight-loss type resolutions to the back of my mind for another day at least.

As a chain pub the Pembroke works very well and it will probably be a big success in Gravesend.

But if you are looking for a pub stuffed full of nooks and crannies, oozing with individual character, I suggest you look elsewhere.