Pizza Express: High Road, Loughton

This Pizza Express in, as the estate agents would say, picturesque Loughton is done up in the new stripey (sophisticated continental or criminal with a bag of swag, delete as you wish) look. Complete with tree silhouettes on the wall, marking the Loughton Pizza Express’s closeness to Epping Forest. Which makes the toilet signs interesting. No, really.

Because it means the signs to the toilets are done out in the new stripey look too: stripey man, stripey woman, stripey baby, stripey wheelchair. Which all looks a bit creepy if you ask me … but also raises the interesting, yes really, question about why the rest of the toilet signage is not the same as in Pizza Express in the Stratford Westfield Centre, which as a new outlet opened from day one with the stripey look.

Two newly done up outlets, using the same new brand look yet inconsistent toilet signage? Hooray for the rebellion against obsessively consistent branding I say. Today Pizza Express’s toilet doors, tomorrow the world!

Meanwhile, in other Pizza Express inconsistency news: have you noticed how the goats cheese and chicken salad varies between outlets? In some it is a goats cheese salad, with chicken available for £1 extra. In others it is a chicken salad, with goats cheese available for £1 extra. Market testing? Or a cunning analysis of the distribution of non-meat eaters around London?

And finally, can someone explain the logic of this to me?

It’s the new reversible Pizza Express tableware. One way up – it’s got a slot for holding promotional flyers. Other way up – it’s a candle holder. I would have thought having a reversible candle holder that staff are meant to turn over at various times is just asking for an accident involving hot wax, screaming, lawyers, scare stories, tabloid horror stories (GOING TO PIZZA EXPRESS CAN GET YOUR BURNT!), an Early Day Motion, a health and safety manual and – quite possibly – the end of the world.

Just wondering.

So that is 31 down, 107 (or thereabouts) to go.