Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Tag: Good Beer Guide

  • London – Camden (Borough of) – Ye Olde Mitre

    London – Camden (Borough of) – Ye Olde Mitre

    This is an interesting pub to get to, I walked by these gates into Ely Place and this takes its name from when it was the site of the London residence of the Bishop of Ely. The road has its own Wikipedia page for anyone interested in the history of this area and that saves me writing about it here…..

    This is the little alley that the pub is located down, although I think there’s another entrance from the other side, but either way, this pub is one that has to be actively looked for rather than stumbled upon. That all makes it a little more exciting.

    There has been a pub on this site since around 1546, when it was used by the servants who worked at the Bishop’s house, and I can’t imagine that the bishop himself would have meandered along. Although who knows…. Anyway, the site was cleared when it was taken over by the Crown in 1772, which is when the current building dates from. It was renovated in the early twentieth century and it retains that layout today.

    The pub note on their web-site: (NB, I’ve changed hung to hanged, as I am still slightly [some may say very] annoying in believing meat is hung and dead human bodies are hanged, not that it really matters….).

    “The Ye Olde Mitre is famous for having a cherry tree, (now supporting the front) that Queen Elizabeth once danced around with Sir Christopher Hatton. The pub was actually a part of Cambridge (Ely being in Cambridge) and the licencees used to have to go there for their licence. Set in a part of London steeped in history, it’s near where William Wallace was hanged, drawn and quartered at Smithfield, along with martyrs and traitors who were also killed nearby.”

    This is unfortunately another pub that in non Covid times that I would have walked around a bit more to see the history and heritage. I did go and have a little look at the rear beer garden, and there’s also seating at the front. These areas were a little bit busier, but there were tables free in both sections so the pub was far from busy.

    There was a prompt welcome from a friendly and personable staff member when I arrived and I was offered a table either inside or outside. I prefer inside so that I can at least have a look at the pub’s interior (and outside is often home to wasps and other bitey things) and the staff member said “I think we can just about squeeze you in”. As can be seen from the photo above, he managed to fit me in….

    The beer selection wasn’t too bad, I went for a quick half of the Windsor Knot, an acceptable beer from the Windsor & Eton brewery that I had a few months ago as well. The staff members were all welcoming and there was a relaxed feel to the arrangements here. I suspect that this is one of those pubs that if you moved into a property nearby that you’d be made to feel welcome if you wanted to make this your local. The only downside is that this is a small pub, and it’s only these exceptional times that meant I found it so easy to get a table. Normally there would likely be more tourists, more city workers and just more visitors to the area.

    The pub is in the Good Beer Guide, so that’s another one visited. For its heritage alone, I can see why its listed, and I found it perfectly friendly and welcoming. I would have, as ever, preferred a slightly more decadent beer choice than that provided by Fuller’s, but it could have been much worse. Definitely one worth visiting.

  • London – City of London – Blackfriar Pub

    London – City of London – Blackfriar Pub

    I’ve never bothered trying to get in this Nicholson’s pub before, located near to Blackfriars Station, as it always looks heaving with people (the pub, not the station, although that’s just as bad). It was a little busy outside, but I ventured in and discovered that it was very quiet inside. As I mentioned when visiting the Old Bank of England pub last week, this is an ideal time to visit pubs that are usually too busy to get in, although I accept it’s hardly the ideal situation for the hospitality trade in London.

    Not that it much matters, but there’s a difference in opinion in whether this pub is the “Black Friar” or the “Blackfriar”. CAMRA and Wikipedia go with the former, but since the pub goes with the latter, I’m going with that.

    The pub has been here since 1875 and the flatiron style building was designed by the architect H. Fuller-Clark and artist Henry Poole, with John Betjeman being involved in a campaign to prevent its demolition in the 1960s. The pub is in a slightly strange position and I can imagine that a much bigger building would have made more money, but I’m glad that this piece of Victorian history has survived. The pub, as well as the area and the railway station, takes its name from the monastery that was here until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the sixteenth century.

    I was welcomed promptly and informally, so it all seemed a comfortable environment. I had no end of problems with the Nicholson’s app and with the menus not loading, but I persisted and got my drink ordered. There wasn’t a great deal of choice, three relatively standard ales, but at least there was that so I had a little bit of a selection.

    Some of the decoration in the pub, which I suspect has more character and atmosphere when there are more customers in it. There were quite a few staff, so I wondered whether perhaps it wasn’t as quiet as they’d anticipated. It’s difficult to walk around during these Covid times, otherwise I would have liked to have explored the interior a little more. I see that the listed building record notes:

    “Small, windowless extra rear vaulted room, known as the Grotto, excavated from a railway vault, designed by Clark in 1913 but not executed until 1917-21 owing to the war.”

    For anyone who is interested, CAMRA have a page on the pub’s heritage.

    I didn’t want to repeat the same drink I’d had earlier in the day in another Nicholson’s pub, so I just went with a Doom Bar. I know a beer that this is modelled on, but I won’t comment on that here…… The beer was fine, at the appropriate temperature and all that (someone will be glad to hear that I know). The pricing in the pub was a little expensive, although this is central London, but the app gave me 25p off as a little reward, so that was handy.

    The reviews for the pub are pretty favourable, there don’t seem to be any real issues here and I felt welcome. There wasn’t a huge amount of engagement from the staff members, but since orders needed to be placed via the app, that does restrict things a little. The pub has made its way into the Good Beer Guide, I suspect more from its heritage and character than necessarily the slightly limited beer range (although CAMRA suggest that there’s normally much more choice, and I understand that these are difficult times). Either way, I’d come back here again, and it’ll be positive to see it much more packed once again as that might just mean things in London are nearly back to normal.

  • London – Richmond upon Thames (Borough of) – Roebuck

    London – Richmond upon Thames (Borough of) – Roebuck

    This is the only Good Beer Guide listed pub in Richmond, worth the walk up the hill given the extensive views over the Terrace Gardens and beyond. It’s a Greene King operated pub and it has won a number of local CAMRA awards in local years, as well as attracting some rather influential customers. They certainly have an enviable location and there has been a pub here for over 200 years.

    The real ale selection, which is better than I had anticipated for a Greene King pub. The service was, well, unusual. I don’t intend for this blog to ever be a platform to criticise bar staff, but I did find the environment really quite strange. Visitors, including myself, were welcomed with a slightly abrupt “do you want a table?” which is a question I’m still not sure I entirely understand. Everyone replied yes and I can only imagine that perhaps some customers perhaps want to take food or drink away because of the lovely views. I’d prefer a more gentle welcome. Anyway, my confusion put to one side, I noticed a table that looked handy for my needs.

    I wasn’t given any of these nice tables (and nor the one that looked handy for my needs), I was given a table with no view that really wasn’t ideal. I found the situation quite humorous with how the staff member behind the bar told her colleague “give him table 3” rather than let him perhaps check if I had any aspirations to sit somewhere in particular in the nearly empty pub. Compare and contrast to the welcome at the pub I’d been to before…. I must admit that the staff member did provide me with quite a lot of entertainment, including her thoughts at times about other customers, colleagues and her housing situation. I’m not entirely sure significant chunks of that conversation were really for customers to hear, but I can’t deny that I like listening to gossip like that.

    It’s not entirely clear, but the views from these tables is extensive and really beautiful. The pub was very quiet, but it was clean and comfortable throughout. It’s had something of a modernisation recently, but it’s sympathetic to the character of the building and it all felt in order.

    The Citra from Oakham Ales, which was fine. Well kept, refreshing and as the name suggests, made with citra hops, which I’m rarely disappointed by. The server that I had was pleasant and helpful, he seemed keen to help and engage, with made things easier. The pricing was moderate, so that all really rather lovely.

    I’ll missing some of the story out for fear of looking too critical, but the staff member completed her show by shouting “can I help you?” as I was walking to the toilets. I did hear her say this loudly the first time, but I tried my best to ignore the situation as it was already inappropriate and I dreaded to think how she was planning to assist. It then seemed clear to me that she had managed to forget that I was a customer and thought that I was someone who had walked in when she wasn’t looking. My walking merrily onwards towards the toilets wasn’t the clue she wanted and the request was repeated. I did feel the need to comment that I had actually been in the pub all the time, had ordered and was going to the toilet before leaving, and she mentioned she was only seeking to show me where the toilets were. Given that I was nearly at the toilets, I wasn’t entirely sure how she thought I was at that stage going to miss them.

    There was nearly no-one in the pub, which struck me as fortunate because she had made quite clear to everyone that a customer was going to the toilet. I did note that at the previous pub the staff member saw I had a laptop and was keen to point me towards a table where I could plug it in. That’s the kind of pro-active service I’d rather have if I’m being honest.

    Anyway, I don’t want to sound too harsh as I think that the staff member was over-enthusiastic and it would seem churlish and unkind to be too critical of that. But, it’s not a pub that I would come back to because the lack of professional discretion about other customers wasn’t really appropriate and I feel that it would be remiss of me not to mention that. However, judging from the positive reviews, it’s clear that my experience isn’t necessarily one that’s widely repeated and the view from the windows is excellent and the beer selection is perfectly reasonable given it’s a Greene King pub. It probably just needed a manager present to ensure everything flowed beautifully, as the pub is clearly usually operating to a high standard.

  • London – City of London – Old Bank of England Pub

    London – City of London – Old Bank of England Pub

    London is a strange place at the moment to establish when and where it will get busy. Usually when I’m walking down Fleet Street and this part of the city, pubs would be pretty packed out in the evening. I walked by this pub and thought it looked interesting, but also thought it might be one of those decadent food pubs who hardly wanted someone in there for a quick pint before their train home. But, whilst merrily walking by and already having pre-judged it, I checked CAMRA’s Whatpub and discovered that it was in the Good Beer Guide. So I walked back again, trying to not look like a confused tourist.

    I had guessed the bit about decadent correctly. However, it wasn’t a gastropub at all as I had thought it might be, although their pies are apparently pretty decent. The building was from 1888 until 1975 used by the Bank of England as their Law Courts and then it was for a while used by a building society, before it was used for a much better purpose, as a pub. The building once had gold bullion in its cellars and the Wikipedia page for the building notes that it might have held the Crown Jewels for a time.

    Going back to the pies that I just made reference to, the pub themselves mention that it’s located between where Sweeney Todd and Mrs Lovett operated (or allegedly operated since it’s likely entirely made up), noting:

    “It was in the tunnels and vaults below the present building that his victims were butchered before being cooked and sold in the pies to Mrs Lovett’s unsuspecting customers”.

    What a lovely selling point for the pies today…..

    The service was professional and efficient, although it seemed slightly over-staffed, so maybe they had been expecting more customers. It got a little bit busier during my visit, but nothing that was going to be a challenge for the staff to cope with in terms of the numbers.

    It’s a pub run by McMullen brewery, so it had their beers in, which is fair enough for their perspective, but gives less incentive for me to return to try something new.

    Slightly mispoured, but by no great margin as I think this was a lined glass, but the beer range was slightly less riveting. I had half a pint of the AK and half a pint of the Country, which were both well kept and tasted fine, but they were perhaps just a bit routine. The Country had some interesting flavours, not least being biscuity as promised, and I like that clean taste. The prices were actually quite moderate (and looking through the food menu, they were reasonable too given the location), fortunately not matching the decadent surroundings.

    One unfortunate omission is a photograph of the double decker bus that they’ve managed to move into their beer garden. I was going to take a photo from the beer garden after leaving the pub, but it transpired you now need to go through the pub, and I decided against meandering around the building again looking for it. But it’s worth Googling this double decker bus they’ve managed to position into their central London location.

    All in all, I’m pleased I popped into here before my train back to sunny Norwich, certainly a memorable interior and the staff were friendly. Maybe I’ll come back for one of their pies at some point…..

  • London – Wandsworth (Borough of) – By The Horns Brewery Tap

    London – Wandsworth (Borough of) – By The Horns Brewery Tap

    I’m slowly, but very surely, working my way around London’s breweries and this one in between Tooting and Wimbledon is also listed in the Good Beer Guide (which I’m also working my way around). So, yesterday I made a booking on-line for today, and then was on course to arrive half an hour early so went to sit in a nearby graveyard to wait. Incidentally, I liked that it let me make a booking for one person, I inwardly tut when I see somewhere only allows bookings for two or more people.

    There was a friendly welcome from the staff member, who explained the ordering process which was done on-line using a QR code. It clearly wasn’t entirely packed with customers as the staff member knew my name when I said I had a reservation, but I’m always happy that I’m in the right place. The ordering system was all efficient and easy to use, and the environment was comfortable. It’s not the largest indoors space, but there are several tables and the outdoor area gives them more flexibility on numbers.

    I was given the chance to move my reservation outside into the hot external seating area, like everyone else seemed to be doing during my visit, but I was quite content inside in the cold. I’ve had enough of London’s heatwave…. I’d actually had enough of the heatwave yesterday about ten minutes after it started, but I digress…. The cricket was also showing on the television and the staff member mentioned I could turn the volume up if I wanted. I didn’t, but I liked the engagement and I also liked the ready supply of power points dotted around.

    There’s an in-house pizza oven and the taproom surroundings are industrial and what I consider to be on-trend and exciting.

    The reasonably priced pizza menu is visible in the above photo (click the image to enlarge it).

    The brewery’s web-site seemed to focus on IPAs, but I noticed they had two darker options available and so I went for half a pint of each. The Lambeth Walk is a porter made by the brewery and it had a pleasant taste with an aftertaste of chocolate and coffee, although it wasn’t quite as rich a flavour as I had expected. A nice beer though and it tasted well-kept (it should since they made it here so it’s hardly gone far) and was at the appropriate temperature. I don’t like porters that are served at some point near freezing, although I might have forgiven that today given the heat. Anyway, it was all perfectly served.

    I wasn’t quite sure what to make of the Deep Funk which is also made here, it’s what they call a farmhouse stout (is that a thing?) and it’s a rye kettle soured stout mixed with a graf, which is effectively a beer cider (I had to Google that). I wasn’t sure whether I was ordering an artisan craft product or an expensive snakebite, but either way, I liked it. A complex taste, or as much as beer and cider mixed together can be, and there were some interesting flavours going on. The mixture of sourness and sharpness worked for me, although I’m struggling to put that effectively into words. It’s not hugely well rated in reviews, but it’s something different and I like trying new concepts.

    Anyway, I liked this brewery and the taproom set-up, it was a relaxed environment and the staff were friendly and everything was organised. There’s usually a wider beer range I understand, but I was entirely satisfied with what they had. I’ve mentioned already that the whole look is quite on-trend, but I don’t think they’ve tried to create that deliberately, it’s just a by-product of friends interested in making craft beer. All really rather lovely.

  • Southwold – Lord Nelson

    Southwold – Lord Nelson

    I wanted to visit the Lord Nelson in Southwold as it’s the only pub in the town which is listed in the Good Beer Guide. I had half suspected a queue, as it was around 12:15, but I loitered outside the pub and a staff member came to welcome me in. For the first time, my phone really didn’t like the QR code for the NHS login, and despite some considerable efforts on my behalf to get it to work, we resorted to pen and paper in the end. I then nearly broke the hand sanitiser as it was a bit complex, so I concluded the pub must be used to more decadent and intellectual guests.

    The drinks menu, inevitably biased towards Adnams as they own the pub and their brewery is around the corner. The service was all timely and friendly, with the order taken at the table and there was an option to set up a tab.

    There are only six tables outside in the pub’s beer garden and I managed to get the second, meaning that there were four free. I decided, to be fair to the pub, that I’d leave when the tables all got filled, as they all seated four people and the pub might lose four lunches if I blocked their table. I liked that they never rushed me, never made me feel unwelcome and it all worked out perfectly timewise. I left after around 45 minutes and a couple tried to get a table for food just as I left, so everyone was a winner there.

    The Blackshore Stout from Adnams, which I rate reasonably highly as it’s creamy and chocolatey. And, just so Nathan is pleased, it was served at the appropriate slightly chilled temperature.

    The pub is well reviewed and the pricing is a little towards the higher end for food, but nothing dramatic. As Basil Fawlty says, “you’re a bit stuck if you don’t like Adnams” (well, he said duck, but Adnams fits better here) on the beer front, but there was a range of different styles of beer and cider. It’s got a bit of atmosphere to it, even when empty, and the service was all sufficiently engaging. Quite a decent place, and certainly not a bad recommendation from the Good Beer Guide.

  • Good Beer Guide 2021

    Good Beer Guide 2021

    To my great delight, the Good Beer Guide 2021 edition is out and the app has updated, so I can see which of my favourite pubs have made a reappearance. My delight is mostly reserved to see that the brilliant Hop and Vine is back in, although I’d have refused to have acknowledged that the book even existed if it hadn’t…..

    Anyway, the new copy is available at https://amzn.to/3e6eoCB.

  • Good Beer Guide 2020 or the Good Pub Guide 2020?

    Since I’ve been asked about this….

    There are two books published every year which both recommend pubs which should be visited, the Good Beer Guide and the Good Pub Guide.

    I’ve had a browse through the Good Pub Guide and, although I appreciate everyone has different views, there are some really surprising and generic choices in there. Without denigrating any particular location, there are some listed pubs which are bland and lacking in any depth of beer options. And very many interesting pubs in areas that I know, which have a really good atmosphere, excellent craft beer choice, innovative real ale and engaging staff are all missed out.

    The Good Pub Guide also claims it’s independent, which I don’t deny, but then takes advertising from breweries and pubs. And then, the book admits, “the pubs featured as main entries do pay a fee”. So, for me, it’s meaningless, however well intentioned that is. They then claim that they’re “the only truly independent guide of its kind”, but I’m not sure how the Good Beer Guide is somehow in hock to anyone.

    The Good Pub Guide seems to really focus on mid to high end pubs which serve food, with few exceptions. If it was rebranded as the good pub food guide, then it might perhaps make more sense. But how they’ve managed to miss nearly every micro-pub, community pub, craft beer pub and quirky pub is surprising for a guide that has been published for so long. In some relatively large towns and even some cities, the Good Pub Guide has nothing to offer at all. The emphasis on country pubs is heavy, and there are a few areas which seem to have several pubs all clustered near together which doesn’t fit right with me.

    Whereas, the Good Beer Guide has rarely failed to let me down, indeed, not one choice has ever felt inappropriate. And some pubs in there have been real finds, with some fantastic craft beer and real ales, but also historic buildings and perhaps most importantly of all, a great atmosphere and service. The Good Beer Guide is up-to-date, they don’t sneer at pubs that might be cheaper and I like their often humorously pithy comments and summaries of the locations they’ve recommended. Indeed, the Good Pub Guide gives similar space to every entry, without really sometimes having much to say, whereas the Good Beer Guide does feel that it speaks its mind.

    By a country mile, I’d recommend the Good Beer Guide for anyone who wants pubs with character.

  • Hull – CAMRA Good Beer Guide Pubs

    Hull – CAMRA Good Beer Guide Pubs

    There are fourteen pubs in Hull which are listed in the 2020 Good Beer Guide, which is my go to guide for exploring pubs in a new town or city. I didn’t reach all of them unfortunately during my visit to Hull, but I did get to some of them and I’ve linked to those below. My favourite was the Hop and Vine…..

    Admiral of the Humber

    Chilli Devils

    Furley & Co

    George Hotel

    Head of Steam

    Hop and Vine

    Larkins (didn’t visit)

    Minerva

    Pave (didn’t visit)

    St. Johns (didn’t visit)

    Three John Scotts

    Whalebone (didn’t visit)

    White Hart (didn’t visit)

    Ye Olde White Harte