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London – Tower Hamlets (Borough of) – Kings Stores Pub

I’m working my way carefully around the Good Beer Guide pubs of London, with the Kings Stores being operated by the Metropolitan Pub Company, which is part of Greene King. They note that “every single one of our 71 pubs in and around London is unique and each of them is individually run by its manager”, which adds some confidence to arrangements, as Greene King aren’t always the finest purveyors of beers in their pubs.

The welcome was prompt and friendly, with the pub feeling all clean and organised. The beer choice was just about satisfactory, although to be fair, better than most Greene King pubs. There was Greene King IPA, Amagansett from Bedlam Brewery and Swift from Truman’s Brewery, so a not particularly balanced selection and nothing of any real note for a pub listed in the Good Beer Guide. I limited myself to a half pint of Swift, which was well kept and moderately interesting, but I wouldn’t have much wanted much more of it.

The pub seems to be well reviewed for food and it looks a reliable option for that, and the pubs has a multitude of wines available. The observant might notice in the above photo that sausage rolls and Scotch Eggs are being sold for £5, with other food prices all being towards the higher end of the range. The pub shows sports as well as trying to appeal to a dining clientele, which seems an interesting mix, and the whole arrangement felt a bit formulaic to me.

Anyway, the pub was welcoming and that’s important, with the service being efficient and warm. It’s nearby to London Liverpool Street railway station and I can think of worse places to wait for a train than this pub.

May 20, 2021
London – Westminster (Borough of) – Oxford Street – Hard Rock Cafe

We won’t go back into my annoyance with The Fork (what I consider to be the TripAdvisor’s badly run restaurant booking service, but others may have different views, including probably TripAdvisor), but they had the Hard Rock Cafe in Oxford Street on a 50% off food offer. They were also promising 1,000 Yums (worth £20) for a booking made under an offer to get people back eating in restaurants, although I shall see in due course whether this gets paid out. That meant I made an exception and made a booking via The Fork, which will likely give me something else to complain about next week.

Anyway, the restaurant wasn’t packed. This is a large and expensive set-up on Oxford Street, right next to Marble Arch underground station, which also consists of a Hard Rock hotel. The whole complex opened in 2019, perhaps not the best timing with what was to happen next. The management are left with a huge restaurant that was designed to make money by having a large turnover, but they’re trying to fill it as best as they can.

I entered and there were no staff immediately visible, so I meandered to near the bar area so that I could stand there and look awkward. Fortunately, someone looking a bit important noticed me and found a member of staff to welcome me, which was all done efficiently. They didn’t seem overly interested that I had a reservation, which is understandable since they have about 100 tables available. I needed them to be interested though for the purposes of The Fork deal, and they seemed all content when I mentioned it.

When I say that it wasn’t packed, there were about two customers. They offered to seat me at the bar, but I was quite content with one of the tables and the staff member didn’t seem overly annoyed at my decision. I can’t be doing all that social at lunchtime, I’m not in America at the moment. Although dreaming of it….. Anyway, I digress.

This is the view I had from my table, which I thought was entirely satisfactory and is nicer than most dining options that I frequent. The service was as would be expected from Hard Rock, which was engaging, personable, enthusiastic and all of those things. It was all very timely, but there were as many staff members as guests, so this probably wasn’t entirely difficult to achieve.

I decided to go for the chicken fajitas, which were about £8.50 after the discount and I considered that to be very reasonable, especially given the decadent and empty surroundings. The food was decent, the chicken was moist and tender with some depth of flavour to it. The sour cream seemed to have been served using an ice cream scoop and I was pleased that the cheese had been kept away from any hot items (I like my cheese cold as I’m awkward). Restaurants never seem to provide enough wrap things (the meal comes with four) for the amount of food and I notice one person in a review said they asked for one more wrap and got charged £4.99. And the amount of guacamole was generous, which pleased me.

I like “the damage” bill holder, although I wonder how that goes down for those who are moderately shocked by the size of their bill. My bill came to £15.28 by the time that the unlimited sodas and service charge was added on. I do try and visit Hard Rock Cafes when in a city, so this wasn’t an unreasonable price given the quality of the experience.

My knowledge of music memorabilia is very limited, but I do like having a little look at what each Hard Rock in the chain has acquired for their walls.

All told, I thought that this was a professionally run restaurant and I can imagine it’ll be very popular with tourists when some form of normality returns to London. Fortunately, the quietness of London at the moment means that I got what I considered a cheap meal and I’ll be very pleased if The Fork actually pay the £20 out like they’re supposed to, as I’ll probably come back here to spend it. If that all works out, this was a rather keenly priced meal.

May 20, 2021
London – City of London – First London Coffee House

From where it all began for coffee shops in London, what is now the Jamaica Wine House on St Michael’s Alley in the Cornhill area. This first coffee house was opened in 1652 by Pasqua Rosée who had connections with the Turkish and Greek communities. He built himself a little shop, although I can imagine that it wasn’t exactly Pret (it was probably more akin to something that I’d create with a few bits of wood and a civil engineer friend to do some sawing and construction), and this new drink of coffee seemed to catch on. He put a sign up out the front with his own image on it, similar to what Tim Martin did with his now closed pub on Whitehall. He had some important customers (Rosée I mean, not Tim Martin), not least Samuel Pepys who wrote about his visit in 1660.

It had quite a nice little location by St. Michael’s Cornhill Church, but this whole area was badly affected (by badly affected, I mean it burned down) by the 1666 Great Fire of London. The church is still in situ, although it was heavily rebuilt following the Great Fire, with the shop also being rebuilt on pretty much the same site it had been standing on. Rosée wasn’t a freeman of the city and I can imagine the problems that this caused him, so apparently there was some partnership arrangement created to get around this problem to ensure that he could trade. No-one is entirely sure what the premises were called, but it’s thought that for a while they were known as the Turk’s Head. Rosée did well from his enterprise, but he decided to go an innovate in Paris instead, opening up that city’s first coffee shop in 1672.

The building on the site today is the Jamaica Wine House, a Victorian building which was completed in 1869. The pub might have switched from coffee to beer and then more to wine (next step craft beer…..), but there’s still a nineteenth century cooker in place from where the coffee beans were roasted.

I still like how exotic this coffee shop must have been when it opened, probably as exciting as an innovative craft beer bar being announced. It was a place to be seen and also to discuss financial arrangements, which is how the large insurance, banks and financial institutions evolved. They were good places for traders to meet to discuss their purchase and sales, usually also quite energetic (loud) environments. Usually there was no alcohol served in these coffee shops in the early days and women were excluded from attending such decadent places.

I can only imagine the sort of gossip that was discussed at this coffee shop from 1652, but I think that I’d like to have listened to it. King Charles I had been executed just three years before the coffee shop opened, so political talk would have been inevitable, and I’m sure care was taken to avoid upsetting the wrong people. Coffee shops and pubs later often welcomed one political group over another, which would be an interesting set-up for Pret, they could have shops for Starmer supporters and maybe the odd one or two for supporters of Grant Shapps or something. Anyway, I digress.

May 20, 2021
London – Hackney (Borough of) – Shoreditch – Goose Island

I’m not going to write up anything more about my visit to Goose Island today, as nothing has changed, it’s still brilliant. I still can’t name another location I’ve been where the bar staff are as knowledgeable, and passionate, about beer. And thanks to the manager today for remembering my blog posts when I mentioned my name (I’d add that I made a reservation to get a table so needed to say my name, I didn’t walk in and announce my name and expect rose petals to be thrown on the floor). More about Goose Island coming up soon, as I’ve convinced Liam to come with me to enjoy the whole experience of the bar and I hope the staff can deal with that beer education challenge 🙂

What I did want to write about though, mostly to remind myself, was this most decadent beer. This is the 14.6% Bourbon County Brand Stout (2020) and the manager said they had to have this on for their re-opening. It is sublime and manages to hide its strength so that it doesn’t taste like sump oil, as my friend Steve has suggested about some of what I call my decadent stouts. There’s a complexity to the flavours, both with the mouthfeel and the aftertaste. There’s vanilla, caramel, bourbon, toffee, biscuit (well, I think there’s biscuit and I don’t think anyone else does) and chocolate, and it remains beautifully smooth. I don’t know how a brewery can make a beer of this strength this smooth and easy to drink.

I managed to sip my way through this without ever getting bored of it, it’s liquid beauty and I think it might be the best beer that I’ve ever had. It has a staggeringly good rating of 4.47 on Untappd, from just under 40,000 different reviews. I’m looking forwards to the 2021 version which comes out I think towards the end of the year, which will again be aged in bourbon whiskey barrels. I haven’t got excited about the release of a beer before, so this is a first.

May 19, 2021
London – City of London – Gilt of Cain (Slave Trade Monument)

This was on the wonderful walk around London led by Des yesterday evening, focusing on the issue of slavery and the links that London has to that (and there’s no shortage of such links). It’s a monument that was unveiled by Desmond Tutu on 4 September 2008 and I’m not sure that I’d have ever noticed it if it wasn’t for Des pointing it out. Not that it’s entirely hidden away, it’s next to 74 Fenchurch Street in what was once the churchyard of St Gabriel Fenchurch which was destroyed during the Great Fire of London and wasn’t rebuilt.

I like this monument, as the messaging behind it is clear without requiring a 62-page guidebook to explain its meaning and purpose. I initially thought that the pulpit was one where anti-slavery campaigners would preach their message and although this is the case, another meaning is apparently also that it is symbolic of how slave auctions might take place. The columns represent sugar cane and show people listening to the message at the pulpit, or, alternatively waiting to be sold to their new owner.

The sculpture is located near to where John Newton of St. Mary Woolnoth parish was the vicar between 1780 and 1807 and he was buried here, although he was later moved. This is important as Newton was a slave trader who changed his views and decided to campaign to end the trade and he’s perhaps best known today for writing the words to the hymn Amazing Grace.

Anyway, this sculpture is thoughtfully located, has a depth of meaning and is creatively intriguing. This is perhaps an ideal which similar projects should try and match in the future. The spelling of the word ‘Gilt’ in the name is also deliberate, it’s a play on the financial term and a nod towards how important that was to London at the time of the slave-trade, and still is today.

There’s a poem written by Lemn Sissay (who later became the official poet of the London Olympics in 2012) and some of the text of that is incorporated onto the monument.

May 19, 2021
London – Little Hail Storm

I was five minutes later for my visit to Little Creatures, because this happened in mid-May when I thought the weather might be quite moderate. I didn’t think that it was ideal as the hail was like people chucking gravel at my head (well, I’ve never had anyone chuck gravel at me, but I’ve used my imagination), so I had to hide in the entrance to a shopping centre….. The whole weather arrangement caused joy amongst the children in the area though.

May 19, 2021
London – Camden (Borough of) – Little Creatures London

I had only vaguely heard of Little Creatures, but they’re a United States operation which has now expanded to locations mostly in Asia and Australasia, but also now in London. They’ve got themselves quite an on-trend location in the new area to the north of King’s Cross St Pancras, which is all rather in keeping with their modern image.

All modern and shiny inside, although it wasn’t overly busy when I arrived in the early evening. The staff here are suitably engaging as I would expect for a chain such as this, friendly and welcoming. They serve food as well such as burgers and flatbreads, and they even have cauliflower bites for those who fancy nibbling on, well, a cauliflower.

Little Creatures are very much about their IPA, so I didn’t go for their beer and instead went for two options from Fourpure brewery, which were the Citrus Session IPA and the Last Train stout. Not necessarily the cheapest, but the on-line ordering system was easy enough to use. There is poor phone signal in the premises, which the staff warn customers about when they arrive, so it’s fairly essential to connect to the free wi-fi. The beer isn’t perhaps the most exotic either, they stock a fair chunk of Magic Rock Brewing products and although I like those, they’re easy to find in supermarkets.

Anyway, this was all a nice environment, welcoming, clean and organised. For the ideal visit, perhaps some rather more decadent or unique beers might be a useful innovation. All on-trend and comfortable though, not a bad choice for a group visit.

May 19, 2021
London – Tower Hamlets (Borough of) – Travelodge Docklands

Judging from the price of hotels in the city, there is still not a huge enthusiasm to travel to London at the moment, not least with the obvious lack of international tourists and business travellers. This was the keenly priced Travelodge Docklands, which is a shortish walk from Canary Wharf that came to a total price of £24.99. Staffing here was minimal, but friendly, which suffices me when paying £24.99.

I’m not sure that Travelodge rooms vary much, and they haven’t departed from the standard here. All clean and well presented, and most importantly perhaps (to me) they have windows that actually open so that the room isn’t hermetically sealed. There were no noise issues either internally or externally, I suspect partly as there weren’t that many people actually in the hotel. But either way, that made for a peaceful night. Although I’d add that it’s quite a hike to get back to reception if you’ve placed in a room right in the far corner of the hotel. But if I can walk 100 miles (have I mentioned that before?) then I can get back to reception I suppose.

The view from the room, with Canary Wharf over on the left-hand side. For those who like taking their cars everywhere, there’s a large car park on site although I suspect they might charge a hefty sum for that. I wasn’t burdened by such issues though, the DLR stop is a three minute walk away.

The most exciting element for me was the history behind this whole site, as until 100 years ago, this was East India Docks. The Travelodge sits towards the top of East India Import Dock, but all of this is now gone, with the exception of the East India Dock Basin which is still there. The streets in the area around the Travelodge are named after products which were once imported into these docks, such as Coriander Avenue, Rosemary Drive, Saffron Avenue, Nutmeg Lane, Sorrel Lane and Clove Crescent.

My room was somewhere about where that boat is in the centre at the front, so it’s fair to say that quite a lot has changed here since this illustration was made around 200 years ago.

Anyway, for £24.99 I thought it was all excellent value for money. I suspect it’s usually a lot more than that and so perhaps less exciting value for what is quite a basic hotel. I didn’t need their wi-fi, but that’s a chargeable service (there’s 30 minutes free) and the whole arrangement is all more functional rather than luxurious.

I had a little look on TripAdvisor and the hotel isn’t badly reviewed, although there are of course some angry customers. The hotel’s lack of mattress protectors is incredibly brave of them, since they’ll end up chucking mattresses away at quite a pace (or picking up negative reviews about that). I liked the “upon arrival in the room there was no Kit Kat chocolate bar”, which reminds me of an episode of The Hotel with Mark Jenkins.

And the customer who was “shocked” at:

“The room cleaning service women was from Eastern Europe which is not an issue but the issue I had with her was she didn’t speak or understand a word of English”.

Odds are they did understand quite a lot of words of English (but studiously ignored the guest), but I’m not sure why a guest really needs an in-depth conversation with the room cleaning staff anyway, who are probably distracted with cleaning rooms. There was another angry guest that check-in is “very late”, despite it being 3pm which is hardly unusual.

And another guest who noted:

“To top it off there were people running around in their underwear in reception.”

I suppose readers have to picture the scene as they feel appropriate, as no more details were given. But my favourite of all was:

“We requested a wake up call and taxi for the following morning but nobody woke us up”.

The hotel reminded the customer that Travelodge don’t offer wake up calls, but I’d like to hear more about what the staff members had promised. A mischievous evening staff member perhaps…..

May 18, 2021
London – Tower Hamlets (Borough of) – Hackney Wick – Crate Brewery (II)

As with the neighbouring Howling Hops, I’ve visited Crate before, and just wanted to note my visits today as a reminder to myself of the big day of pubs fully reopening. What a time to be alive…..

I don’t really entirely understand the set-up with Crate as the upstairs restaurant Silo seems to dominate some of the signage and I’m also never entirely sure what Crate brew themselves as they don’t give their beers decadent names and don’t seem to experiment much. And, rather ridiculously given that I can now sit inside pubs, I found myself sitting outside. But the weather allowed it and there were no bees, wasps or other random animals or insects waiting to attack me. And there were some nice views of the nearby river.

There was a beer from Brew By Numbers which meant choosing a beer was easy as I like them and this was a peach melba fruited gose. I can’t remember who got me into those, but I’ve developed quite a taste for that beer style, and this was a perfectly good example of it. Lots of peach flavour, ideal for a refreshing lunchtime drink. And, Brew By Numbers toasted my check-in on Untappd so I like them even more now, as I’m easily bought by such things.

The staff member was helpful, so this was another easy visit, which I coupled with popping into Howling Hops briefly. All really rather lovely. Normality is a wonderful thing.

May 17, 2021
London – Tower Hamlets (Borough of) – Hackney Wick – Howling Hops (II)

I won’t drone on for too long about Howling Hops, since I’ve visited before and wrote a little more that time. However, today is a big day for pubs as they can open inside once again, so I feel the need to record that for my own record, even if for no-one else’s interest.

Service was friendly and helpful, although no real surprises there. Customers can drink beers straight from the tanks (well, not literally, they are served in a glass) which adds theatre to the proceedings. It wasn’t particularly busy, I think that most of the people who were there worked for Howling Hops, but it felt laidback and welcoming. It’s a nice place, convenient for when I’m passing by on the London Overground (which is nearly never if I’m being honest, but I’ll make special trips).

I opted for the Morning Ride, a New England IPA with Enigma, Simcoe and Mosaic hops (I didn’t know that obviously, I’ve just copied it) and I liked that the brewery mention the “sweet shop pick-n-mix finish”. I wouldn’t disagree with that, it was a sweet and citrusy beer which worked well for me as a refreshing lunchtime drink. I was also a little tempted by the Gentle Storm beer which Howling Hops brew, which seems to be so new that absolutely no-one has reviewed it on Untappd. But everything in moderation.

And it’s nice for me to be back inside pubs, something which I hope is now a permanent state of affairs for the hospitality industry (I mean being allowed to have customers inside in general, not necessarily having me inside).

May 17, 2021