Back to mid-January, when Richard and I decided that we needed a little adventure and we opted for Burton upon Trent and the Ibis Styles there.
The corridor arrangement is clever, as if someone stains it then it’s not really evident. I’m fairly confident that this was the actual reason for this design as I can’t see anyone picking this by choice.
Richard was very excited that the room he had booked came with a kitchenette. I was pleased that mine did too, but solely as I didn’t want him having a better room than me (I’m not petty). As an aside, I personally don’t like these kitchens in rooms, they’re a nightmare to clean properly for the staff and require substantial maintenance for something that many guests aren’t going to want. Keeping a microwave and every piece of cutlery and crockery clean isn’t an easy thing to do, I can’t really see why they want to burden themselves with this.
Someone rather unkindly used AI to put a bottle of wine in the fridge and pretended that it was a welcome gift. Actually, on that point, there was no welcome gift, but I won’t labour that matter. Anyway, Richard was stomping about the place as he didn’t get a gift of wine but luckily I was able to reassure him before the manager was called. It would be helpful for Richard’s stress levels if people didn’t do this, but at least I calmed the matter down before there was a diplomatic incident. It was a good job that I was there to be honest.
There was a modern looking bar area, all rather comfortable.
It’s quite a clever mix of retro and modern, although it hadn’t exactly inspired hundreds of people to come in.
I would have preferred a wider range of beers, but in fairness, they have Pedigree which is an important beer locally so at least they’ve made an effort to have a local option.
As for the hotel in general, it was all clean, welcoming and well maintained. Richard didn’t end up having an argument with the manager and there were no noise issues either internally or externally. It’s a relatively new hotel and it faces competition from an IHG hotel literally next door, but it all seemed well managed.
Richard and I were walking down the road whilst he was busy gossiping on the phone and I saw this Indian and Nepali restaurant, quickly taking the positive action that we should go in it. I might have also got myself seated inside before he even got off the phone, but he was very pleased with my decision.
Incidentally, I wasn’t sure whether it was Nepalese or Nepali, but it seems that the latter is now preferred but the restaurant uses the former.
The restaurant has only opened relatively recently and it’s got some very positive reviews. And here’s the menu, which looked interesting with numerous tempting options.
I opted for the Gurkha beer, which was actually about as good as a lager like this was going to be.
The poppadoms were brought over two short, but that was soon rectified, with the dips and chutneys being suitably tasty but they were quite hard to get out of the very flat plate they’d used.
And here’s my little arrangement of Bhuteko Kukhra, pilau rice and a peshwari naan. The curry was Nepalese fried chicken in a sauce with aromatic ginger, garlic and a robust masala sauce, with a chunk of carrot to act as a decoration. The curry had a depth of flavour, a certain amount of spice and the chicken was tender. The naan and rice both added positively to the main dish, all being filling and Richard was happy with the butter paneer that he had ordered.
The service was always polite and attentive, with a welcoming atmosphere and personable staff members. I liked that they placed us at a table for four rather than fitting us on a table for two, which ensured that we had plenty of space. It’s clearly a popular venue as well, they were getting quite full by the time we left and they had a steady stream of delivery and collection orders.
After the vibrant excitement of the JD Wetherspoon pub in the town, Richard and I meandered to a rather calmer micropub. This one also has the advantage of being in the Good Beer Guide, so that’s another one ticked off.
The bar set-up, with the beer list being displayed on the screen and also on Untappd. There was a friendly and immediate welcome, with the staff member trying to find a beer that Richard would like.
The beer fridge had more delights.
The Patrons Project from Northern Monk, a very hoppy, grape flavoured, hazy delight. Quite a punchy little arrangement.
The Raspberry Ripple from Fierce Beer, this has nice chocolate flavours, it was a bit boozy and was like a decadent chocolate liqueur.
The Le Bleu from Fierce & Noble, a quite tart beer with lots of blueberry and lingering smooth flavours.
The surroundings were clean, comfortable and welcoming. It all had an on-trend feel, but with a traditional air to it as well.
I always like a bit of Titanic.
Richard decided we had to stand right outside the shop before calling an Uber rather than sit on the other side of the window. We always have to wait a while as his Uber score is so low there aren’t many drivers that will pick him up. But I didn’t say anything.
Anyway, this was a delightful pub, a friendly welcome, decent choice of cask and keg, along with some bottles to add to the mix. The pricing was reasonable, the surroundings were comfortable and it very much deserves to be in the Good Beer Guide in my humble view.
A few years ago, my friend Nathan and I tried to get into this JD Wetherspoon but it was too full, so we visited most of the other pubs in the town instead. Last month, Richard and I were in the town and we decided to make a quick visit.
Using the pub’s own history to explain the name:
“This pub is named after the first Lord Burton, Michael Arthur Bass, a member of the famous brewing family whose company has its headquarters in Burton.”
I think it would be a fair comment to say that the venue was struggling just a little to maintain order and the door staff were certainly challenged. It probably wouldn’t be much of a stretch to suggest that the door staff couldn’t really take control, there was smoking inside and drug use, which isn’t really where JD Wetherspoon would probably want to be. And, at the same time, on a Saturday night, the delivery turns up.
But, I like a pub with a bit of vibrancy, it all adds to the excitement and I don’t think any customers were ever in danger in the sense of a pub that is unsafe, there were just a few licensing issues for the venue to deal with.
Most of the rear of the pub’s carpet looked like this, with menus, glasses, napkins and food lying on the floor. The team members didn’t get chance to clear it during our visit.
This was the cleanest piece of carpet that I could find for my obligatory carpet photo.
We were initially seated at the rear, but it was quite loud (and as someone who has run a venue that was effectively a nightclub, I set the bar at a reasonable level here) so we decided to move when our drinks arrived.
After fifteen minutes our drinks hadn’t arrived, so I went to recover them from the bar. The team members here were doing a really decent job, they were friendly, working hard and I think just short-staffed. I didn’t query the wait, but a helpful team member said they had a lot of away fans in after football.
The beer is the Auld Acquaintance from Loch Lomond Brewery, hoppy, light and inoffensive.
This is the home of brewing after all…. (the town, not the pub).
The front of the pub was quieter and after a while we got a seat. We had decided that there was a micro-pub nearby that needed our attention, but it was much calmer down this end. Although they didn’t have any tables where everyone was downing wine from the bottle at this end of the pub, so I was tempted to go back.
Anyway, back to reviews as I like reading them, with this venue towards the lower end of the scale for the chain.
“Absolutely awful 😖 asked 4 times to get the table cleaned!!!! When the food arrived I asked again for it to be cleaned before they put the food down….he wiped half of it and slammed the plates down…won’t be going back”
There are tens of reviews like this, but I like a bit of staff attitude to add to the mix.
“Awful experience, had a great time until Nicola left us with a very bitter taste in our mouths (and not just from the mushy peas). Two groups of our friends sat on separate tables and ordered each other food. When the waiter came out she asked us to “stop prating about” and that we were “messing up their orders” however we all ate the food and caused no trouble. We sent it to celebrate our lovely friends birthday to treat him and were told that they will take both tables away from us if we carry on, how dare we treat our friends? This is awful customer service and completely unacceptable from Nicola. She then took the cutlery away from us when we had payed for the food, ordered it to a table when we couldn’t even eat it. We had to go and ask at the bar for some. I think this is appalling customer service and shall be going to the crossing or the prince of brewers from now on.”
Let me guess, they were sending each other milk and peas….. No excuse to treat team members like this by ordering food to each other’s tables and then confusion when the team members are annoyed.
“Because we put our hands up (next to be served) the young girl clearly didn’t like it and made us walk to her.”
Seems reasonable to me.
The pub is on the chain’s cheapest price band and I remember from the choice of venues in the town that they must have a lot of competition which would explain that. I suspect it would have been a rather more relaxed visit if we had popped in earlier, but I do like a bit of drama. We were pleased that we had gone to an Indian to eat though before, it was all much busier than I had expected.
To provide a little context, we visited this pub in Burton whilst on our sixth LDWA 100 training walk.
This was our first Good Beer Guide pub of the day and, to be honest, the Last Heretic was a joy to behold. It’s a micro-pub that was formerly a commercial shop and it opened here in May 2016. Whatpub gives the explanation of the pub’s name, which is:
“The pub is named after Edward Wightman, a resident of Burton but born in Burbage (near Hinckley, Leicestershire), who was the last person to be executed for heresy in England. He was burnt at the stake in Lichfield in 1612, where a plaque commemorates the event.”
This is the sort of well-balanced beer selection that I like, with two dark beers available, the Antracite from 3 P’s brewery in Woodville and the Plum Porter from Titanic. Titanic are one of my favourite breweries and it’s always a delight to see their products available.
But, the chocolate mint chip flavoured Antracite was the intriguing one here. The situation was a little confusing as the beer didn’t appear on Untappd, but some Googling suggests that this is a new local brewery and there’s an air of mystery about it. It’s clear though that it’s producing some rather excellent beers. The beer had a beautiful flavour of the promised chocolate and mint, although it perhaps could have been just that bit richer with a fuller aftertaste. Anyway, that sounds critical and it isn’t, as this beer was way towards the higher end of the scale. And, I would have given it that if I could find it on Untappd, as well as certainly ordering it again if I see it.
The service was friendly and the surroundings were clean, well maintained and organised. There were numerous ciders to choose from and some well thought out craft beer options in cans. The pub is offering a takeaway service, and indeed even some delivery services, a proper contribution to the local community. I only noticed after leaving, when looking at a photo of their blackboard, that they sell locally produced pork pies as well.
The pub’s entry into the Good Beer Guide is absolutely and entirely justified, this is a beautiful piece of micro-pubbing and I very much liked their efforts to source locally where they could. It was tempting to stay for longer, but we had limited time and numerous other pubs to investigate. But, it’s a pub to return to.
