Walking. Gossip. Travel.

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  • Norwich – FupBurger @ the Dog House

    Norwich – FupBurger @ the Dog House

    Having been away from Norwich for a while, I’ve started to get a little behind with visiting some of the more popular places that have opened up in recent months. This is FupBurger who are located the Dog House pub in Norwich, although they seem to now be so dominant here that they might as well just change the name of the pub. We arrived at 17:30, but the venue was full by 18:00 and they were turning customers, all of whom were looking for food, away.

    The drinks menu where the prices are towards the higher end of the scale. The beer options are credible, but broadly not particularly interesting to me.

    The concept is primarily that of burgers, but there are a range of other options there as well such as nachos and loaded fries. The meat is locally sourced and provided by Clarkes Butchers in Hevingham and is is positive to know the origins of the food. FupBurger also have another set-up similar to this, at the Harbour Inn in Lowestoft.

    The staff in the pub were all friendly, with a welcoming greeting and engaging table service offered. There’s quite a fast turnover of tables here, but we were never rushed during our time here, even when they were turning customers away because they were so busy.

    The Mangolicious from the Laine Brew Co in Brighton, which was a fruity beer which tasted of mango, although it wasn’t particularly rich or decadent.

    And the main event, I ordered the double burger with a side of fries. The fries were heavily salted, even for my quite liberal needs (can salt tastes be liberal?) but tasted fine. The burger was meaty and this was quite decadent, rich and tasting of a good quality. The cheese was ideal for me, just processed slices of American cheese rather than some overpowering cheese sauce which wrecked the whole thing. There was plenty of burger sauce, something I also liked, although their recipe for that is secret but it’s mayonnaise based. The bacon was crispy rather than fatty and the brioche roll was fresh, with the whole arrangement being the sort of burger that I like.

    The pricing isn’t cheap, especially with the 10% service charge automatically added, but the surroundings are clean, the staff are friendly, it’s all on-trend and the food was of a very good quality. The burgers are also very Instagrammable, especially for those who order the Quad burger, and some of the popularity of the restaurant has been driven by their social media engagement. I don’t know if they’ll be able to keep the novelty factor up, but that the quality is high, they’ve got a good chance of remaining relevant and popular. Given all that, I was glad to visit this restaurant and I can see why it has become so busy over recent months.

  • Warsaw – Lemon Bar

    Warsaw – Lemon Bar

    This will be a relatively short post as I only popped into Lemon as it was a convenient stop on the way back to the hotel, but there is little else particularly exciting for me to say about it. The venue was clean, the staff were friendly and the environment was relaxed. The beer choices were though limited, hence the Żywiec, and there were very few other customers. It’s particularly handy for drinkers who want a long Friday or Saturday night, as the bar doesn’t close until 7am in the morning. The pricing was reasonable and it’s a handy spot for those wanting a quick drink, but I’m not sure that I’d go again given that the beer selection wasn’t really quite to my taste.

  • Częstochowa – Jewish Ghetto Memorial and Transportation Railway

    Częstochowa – Jewish Ghetto Memorial and Transportation Railway

    I only discovered this towards the end of my stay in Częstochowa, there’s not much really made of it, but it’s a well designed memorial to mark where part of the city’s Jewish ghetto was located during the Second World War. The ghetto was relatively short-lived, it was created in the spring of 1941 and liquidated between late September and early October 1942. Over 40,000 Jews from the city were sent to concentration camps and 5,000 were sent to work at the HASAG factory. Very few survived the ghetto, concentration camps and work camps, with the post-war Jewish population being around 3,000 and many of those decided to leave the city.

    The memorial has the Jewish star on the left and railway tracks on the right, with a large crack to signify the break between the Jewish community in the city and those sent by train to concentration camps.

    This is a thoughtful addition to the memorial, quite bleak in its minimalism. It shows some of the transportations which took place from Częstochowa to Treblinka concentration camp. The monument was designed in 2009 by Samuel Willenberg (1923-2016) and it’s hard to imagine someone more appropriate to create this imagery. Samuel was a local man who was sent to Treblinka and then managed to escape before getting to the country’s capital to fight in the Warsaw Uprising in the Home Army. He escaped German clutches again and spent the post-war period as an engineer and sculptor, ultimately becoming the last living survivor from Treblinka. Untold amounts of bravery and a national hero, and it seems a positive idea to rename the former Umschlagplatz with the name Samuel Willenberg Square.

    It shames the city, by its own admission, that this monument was desecrated and vandalised a few months ago. It was swiftly repaired, but it caused huge upset amongst many parts of the community.

    This is more of a problem, it’s the remains of the railway station and is located next to the memorial as it’s where the transportations left from.

    The building is in urgent need of repair and I understand that the city has failed to buy it.

    It’s fair to say that the state of this former railway station is far from ideal and I hope that some plan can come together to save it before it entirely falls down. I’m not sure, judging by the condition of the building, if the authorities have much time left.

  • Częstochowa – Piwiarnia Piw Regionalnych Multitap & Pub

    Częstochowa – Piwiarnia Piw Regionalnych Multitap & Pub

    Going back a couple of weeks to my little trip to Częstochowa in Poland, this was one of the few craft beer bars that seemed to be open at times that I could visit. It’s located not too far from Jasna Gora, so they might get something of a tourist trade to add to their local custom.

    Very nicely done, the list of available craft beers is chalked up on the boards outside the entrance. I like it when they’re chalked up above the bar, but tempting in customers walking by seems a particularly clever idea. I thought that the beer selection had a suitable range of different styles and from a number of different breweries, so it all felt well thought through.

    It wasn’t packed when I visited, but the atmosphere was warm and homely. It was slightly awkward when I went in as there was quite a lively discussion going on between what looked like an angry Polish man and the barman. I stood there trying to look nonchalant in my British manner, but probably to not much success. As the discussion finished after a couple of minutes I ordered my beer and the angry Polish man came back to talk to me, telling me that his daughter was working in London. It transpired that he wasn’t an angry man, he was a friendly character with an excellent English speaking ability.

    I went for a Stormy Pacific from Funky Fluid brewery who are based in Warsaw, and this was a very decent Double New England IPA. It felt an odd environment to be drinking it, a quiet bar in a relatively rural Polish city with a traditional atmosphere, but yet it was an on-trend and quite exciting beer. The prices were moderate for the quality of the beer, but these are premium products and I’m impressed at how the bar owner has managed to get quite a local following and such positive reviews.

    There weren’t any other customers during the time I was in my little corner and the barman was off doing some bar related things judging from the banging of barrels and the like. That meant I just sat and read a book on my phone for an hour, really quite comfortable in this warm environment. Certainly not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon and I very much hope bars like this continue to open up across Poland. I’ve seen the future and I like it……

  • Warsaw – Warsaw in 1937

    Warsaw – Warsaw in 1937

    I think that this is the best pre-war that I’ve seen of Warsaw, showing the normality of the city in 1937.

    There are numerous video clips of the Old Town Market Place and specifically what is now the Museum of Warsaw. Just a few years later, the square was destroyed, although fortunately carefully reconstructed.

  • Warsaw – Cukiernia Sowa (ul. Grochowska 207)

    Warsaw – Cukiernia Sowa (ul. Grochowska 207)

    One of the reasons for this little blog is to help remind me where I’ve been, which is important when trying to visit all of the outlets of Cukiernia Sowa in Poland. I have to some way to go as there are in the hundreds and I’ve been to under ten, but it’s good to be aspirational. I also keep forgetting to visit the couple of branches that the company has recently opened up in London, there’s one in Ealing and another in Sutton at the moment.

    This outlet is in a shopping centre and it’s only got a couple of tables, which makes getting a seat quite challenging. When we visited it was a little awkward as the seats were taken, but a friendly Polish man said that we could sit with him and he was leaving soon anyway.

    The sole staff member didn’t speak English, which is a little unusual, but we were outside of the central tourist area and she was endlessly helpful with Richard’s requirements.

    Richard went for some cake and a very decadent hot chocolate, which looked very appetising. I went for my standard order of an eclair and a latte, all carefully presented and as tasty as I remember. This remains one of my favourite Polish chains, with the environment being clean, the service friendly and the food and drink of an excellent quality. Indeed, looking at this photo is making me miss Poland….

  • Warsaw – Museum of Warsaw (The Construction of the Central Railway Station)

    Warsaw – Museum of Warsaw (The Construction of the Central Railway Station)

    I’m still working through my little collection of photos of things that interested me from my visit to the Museum of Warsaw a couple of weeks ago and this one is an artwork by Edward Dwurnik (1943-2018) which is located in the Room of Warsaw Views.

    Dwurnik managed to paint over 5,000 artworks during his career, including numerous paintings of the capitals of European Union countries. The above artwork was painted in 1974 and shows the construction of Central Railway Station in the early 1970s, with structures built on top of the railway lines which were already there.

    Also in the artwork is the Palace of Science and Culture on the left, which was a relatively new building at the time, as well as what is now the Novotel Warsaw building on the right. It captures a Warsaw in a time of upheaval, although to be fair, it has had quite a lot of those over recent decades. The painting was created for the 5th Festival of Fine Arts in the city and was put on display at the Zachęta National Gallery of Art. It was then acquired by the city’s Art and Culture Department the in 1975, before being given to the Museum of Warsaw in the following year.

  • Norwich – White Lion

    Norwich – White Lion

    I used to visit the White Lion on Oak Street in Norwich regularly and indeed had my 40th birthday get together there as well. However, in recent years, the bright lights of the Artichoke, Plasterers, Leopard and King’s Head have shone brighter, and they’re also much nearer to where I live, so I haven’t visited much.

    And here’s one of my favourite photos, Andrew and Susan enjoying themselves, with an eight year old looking Nathan serving behind the bar. Hopefully he won’t read this before we go to the pub tonight…..

    Anyway, I went back at the weekend as it was the Legstretchers Christmas party. This is the very exciting long-distance walking group of Norfolk Ramblers that I brought back to life in 2016, but I retired a couple of months ago and Maria and Stephen have now taken it over. Maria had a marvellous idea to host the Christmas party at the White Lion, so I felt the need to go along.

    The food and drinks menu….

    Back in the day, the White Lion was a cider pub and probably the best in Norwich, an award it frequently won from CAMRA. I had the Black Prince Porter from Bexley Brewery and the Kaiser from Welbeck Abbey Brewery, which were both well-kept, but they weren’t the most exciting and there was a limited depth of flavour from either. The keg selection of beers at the White Lion is quite weak, but at least they’ve got a number of real ales available.

    The burger, which was sufficiently meaty and tasted of a decent quality, with the wedges being cooked perfectly. I didn’t quite work out what the slightly hard lumps on the burger were, but the coleslaw was very moreish. A number of our group was eating and everyone seemed happy with their food, with the portion of nachos looking very generous.

    After we had listened to Richard sneezing, this was my attempt to teach everyone the rules of bar billiards after the meal……

    On the service, well, that was excellent. The member of staff behind the bar was engaging, friendly and personable, so the welcome felt authentic and genuine. Indeed, all of the staff members were warm and hospitable, there’s a really good team working here and they were a great credit to the pub. This feels like a really well-run pub and I suspect that someone new to the area who wanted to meet new friends would have some success here, a key measure of a venue in my eyes.

    If I’m being honest, the beer selection isn’t quite decadent enough to tempt me away from my usual haunts. However, what they had was well-kept and the pub is offering one of the best welcomes that I’ve had this year, so that’s all really positive. I’m sure that I shall visit again, perhaps on a more regular basis to recent months. I’ve never had the Sunday lunch here, either because I’ve been walking or out of the country, but it’s well reviewed and I will get the chance to try it one day…..

  • Warsaw – Jabeerwocky Craft Beer Pub (Visit 3)

    Warsaw – Jabeerwocky Craft Beer Pub (Visit 3)

    Just a short post because, as the title suggests, I’ve written about this bar in Warsaw twice before (visit 1 | visit 2). But, I very much like the welcome here and I visited a few times during my latest sojourn to the city. It might not have the most beers available compared to some other craft beer bars in Warsaw, but it has some of the most innovative and interesting.

    This is the insanely good Noa Pecan Mud Cake Stout from Omnipollo, beautifully decadent and the aftertaste was exactly the same as eating a rich chocolate cake. It’s 11% and is reviewed at 4.22 on Untappd, which is towards the higher end of the scale. On a visit on my own the week after, I had Podbipięta from Browar Łańcut, another superb beer which is 12% and has been finished in Bourbon barrels. That beer was just as decadent and also scored 4.22 on Untappd. And beer of that quality during my recent visits has to be noted….

    And the chorizo pizza was as good as ever, keenly priced (just over £5) and a beautiful complement to the beer.

    As a craft beer bar, this is definitely one of the best in Warsaw, with the service being friendly and the environment clean and comfortable. All really rather lovely.

  • Warsaw – Museum of Warsaw (Ravensbrück Concentration Camp Uniform)

    Warsaw – Museum of Warsaw (Ravensbrück Concentration Camp Uniform)

    Just a few more posts left about my visit to the Museum of Warsaw a couple of weeks ago.

    Concentration camp uniforms are always challenging exhibits for any museum, a tangible reminder of the horrors that took place during the Second World War.

    This uniform is marked with a ‘P’, meaning that the prisoner was Polish and this is from Ravensbrück concentration camp. It was owned by Maria Bortnowska (1894-1972) who was an activist for the Polish Red Cross and also a fighter in the Polish Home Army. Unfortunately, she is an another victim of the Soviet takeover of Poland after the end of the Second World War, as she started to investigate the Katyn Massacre where hundreds of Poles were killed by the Soviets. She was imprisoned, although the authorities had to release her when evidence came in from other survivors at Ravensbrück about her good conduct. Maria’s family donated the uniform to the museum in 1973 and I think it’s one of the most exhibits in their collection.