Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Tag: Head of Steam

  • GeoGuessr 2 – Birmingham (Head of Steam)

    GeoGuessr 2 – Birmingham (Head of Steam)

    This is the fourth Head of Steam that I’ve visited this year and none of them have failed to deliver an excellent experience, with the Liverpool location being one of my favourite pubs. The others I’ve visited have been in Hull and Sheffield, so I was looking forwards to visiting this one in Birmingham.

    The entrance area to the bar, which is also listed in the Good Beer Guide (the entire bar I mean, not just the entrance area).

    A couple of options from Northern Monk.

    Some of the beers available, although the choice also spanned another bar as well. There wasn’t a blackboard or screen with the choices on, which would have been useful. The set-up in the Head of Steam in Liverpool is better, with screens displaying the options, as well as long printed beer lists.

    Nathan noticed these two beers from Siren Craft Brew, which weren’t cheap, but were absolutely essential purchases. They were the Caribbean White Chocolate Cake Tropical White Stout and the Death by Caribbean Chocolate Cake Imperial Tropical Stout. The former was nearing perfection, a depth of taste, clean flavours and it would have been harder to make a drink taste more like cake. The latter beer, the imperial stout, hit perfection as far as I was concerned. It was rich with tastes of vanilla, sugar, chocolate and decadence, entirely lovely.

    We were contemplating where to eat but noticed that the bar offered pizza and dessert for £10 on Sundays, so given the quality of the drinks that we had, there seemed no point rushing off. The meat feast pizza was well presented, although slightly aggressively cooked on the edges and the dough was also slightly lumped up in the middle. But, it was all cooked well, the toppings had flavour to them and it was perfectly reasonable value for money.

    I wasn’t sure, given how much pizza I’d had, that I wanted dessert, but I had already opted for the ice cream sundae. I think that was about as much I could have managed and it met my requirements for something light.

    All in all, this is an excellent bar and the service was welcoming and engaging throughout, with Nathan making a friend at the bar after she eyed up his shirt. Social butterfly I tell you….. The bar was busy and we were fortunate to get the last table, although I was marginally surprised to see that there wasn’t an area just for those customers wanting to eat food, so they might have lost some diners. The atmosphere in the bar was though relaxed and there was some football showing, but not in a way that intruded on the overall ambience of the location.

    Anyway, just for a little meander onto TripAdvisor:

    “Very average, but very expensive. Possibly the most expensive bar in Central Birmingham, with nothing luxurious in there.”

    I’m not quite sure how a bar with this many beers can be described as average, nor how a customer could have missed so many high-end beers, along with more traditional options.

    “Thanks for your review, unfortunately is very unlikely you would have been allowed entry to this or any venue after racially abusing the door team. In any event the venue operates to a legally enforceable capacity which has nothing to do with the perceived level of custom but on the number of heads in the building. It is often the case that we have to hold guests at the door at peak times. It is often the case that a persons reaction is a direct indication of how they are likely to conduct themselves once they enter the venue.”

    Most of the negative reviews of this bar recently appear to have come from the same group, complaining about the door staff. I liked the bar’s response above, as that last line about reactions is very true,  if the door company are decent they will work out to let the nice people in and keep the aggressive and rude ones out……

    “There were 4 of us in a group having left work very late and we tried to get served. Despite us being together, albeit we had subdivided into two groups of two for the evening for our orders, one of the female bar staff refused to serve two of us “as we were the wrong side of her serving zone” – we are talking centimeters here! – absolutely ridiculous. As someone who organised many social events for a large organisation I’ve been sure to spread the word on this ludicrous bar staff behaviour – may be it is company policy, but is one that need to be consigned to the 1800s.”

    This review makes me like the Head of Steam even more. I like pubs where the staff serve just one section of the bar each, it means they are more likely to know who to serve next and it ensures things are kept calmer and more organised.

    Anyway, all in all, this was a very lovely visit, although I was pleased we had come on a more relaxed Sunday than trying to visit on a busy Saturday night, which I might have enjoyed a little less.

  • Sheffield – Head of Steam

    Sheffield – Head of Steam

    Following my visits to their pubs in Liverpool and Hull, this is my third Head of Steam in four weeks. I might as well try and get to them all over the coming few years, yet another challenge to try and meet.

    The beer selection was extensive, varied and interesting. The member of bar staff was knowledgeable, helpful and I also liked that the pub offered CAMRA discount even on half pints. I opted for the Pollards Milk Stout from Thornbridge Brewery, which was beautiful, creamy in taste and full of flavour, with hints of chocolate and coffee.

    The building used to be a bank, with one of their safes still visible.

    I doubt Scott wants to be in a photo, but since he won’t read this, it won’t matter. Like Schrodinger’s Photo, it might not exist if you don’t know about it. Anyway, it was the glass that amused me, a special child’s glass for Scott.

    A Chimay beer bottle, something a little different in terms of the decor. Although, whilst on the subject of decor, I was disappointed that there weren’t any screens as I wanted to see my name on the live Untappd feed, which is because I’m very easily pleased.

    Overall, this was another very lovely pub, laid-back, fun, interesting and quirky. I also liked that the music wasn’t too loud, the building was interesting and there were plenty of different seating areas. I was confused why they had doormen on the front checking customers entering, but no-one at the back of the pub, but the atmosphere was welcoming and calm, so all seemed under control.

  • Hull – Head of Steam

    Hull – Head of Steam

    After my delight at the Head of Steam in Liverpool a couple of weeks ago, it seemed proper and fitting to visit their location in Hull (and hopefully I’ll visit the one in Sheffield next week). The decor is very different here, but there were still some excellent beers to choose from. The pub was busy, mainly with diners, and there was a nice relaxed atmosphere.

    The pub had Turning Point’s Lucid Dream Cookie Cream Stout, so that was me sold. There’s also a CAMRA discount which brought the price down to something like £4.20, which isn’t unreasonable for such a marvellous beer. Depth of flavour, creamy taste and at the appropriate temperature, a glorious beer.

    Actually, on the food, I did like one review on TripAdvisor:

    “I wanted a healthy option and, as stated on the menu, I asked one of the team. For health reasons I cannot eat some salad ingredients so told them what I couldn’t have. Their imaginative minds came up with lettuce and cucumber. If you read your reviews can I suggest grated carrot, sweat corn, red cabbage(I noticed that on my husband’s plate!) Grapes seeds quinoa dried fruit nuts beetroot to name but a few.”

    The pub’s response:

    “Unfortunately, our house salad is lettuce, cucumber, tomato, onions and pepper. As you are unable to eat tomato, onions or pepper, it didn’t leave our kitchen with a lot of options.”

    Beautiful. I’m not quite sure where the pub is going to magic up quinoa, beetroot and dried fruit from, unless they somehow pick the bits out of their vegetarian burgers which do have some of those ingredients in them. It must be disappointing when a customer leaves such a negative review when they’re doing so well in getting themselves as one of the highest rated pubs in the city.

    The staff member was friendly, the pub was relaxed and the selection of beers entirely met my expectations. And, it’s in the Good Beer Guide, yet another deserved entry in my humble, and irrelevant, view.

  • Liverpool – Head of Steam

    I, rather ignorantly, hadn’t heard of this small chain of pubs before, but I shall look out for them now in the future. As with other pubs I visited tonight, I went to them all because they’re listed in the Good Beer Guide. As with the others, this one also seemed to be deserving of its place in the guide.

    There was a quirky design in what was a substantial pub in terms of its size, with plenty of different seating types. I didn’t order food, but the menu looked interesting and on-trend, with plenty of dining type tables available for those who wanted that.

    I understand, from the head of pub planning for our Sheffield trip in a few weeks, that a visit is already planned to the Head of Steam bar there. The chain is owned by Camerons Brewery, once a much larger concern than it is today. Many of the pubs which they used to own have ended up with the Brent Walker group, which then became part of Pubmaster, and then in due course, Punch Taverns.

    It’s not very original perhaps, but I usually go for a Plum Porter from Titanic Brewery when I see it. It didn’t disappoint here, lots of flavour and nicely refreshing.

    Although later on, unable to force myself to leave the pub, I also went for Tiny Rebel’s Cask IPA. The two staff members who served me had a vibrancy about them, so the whole environment felt friendly. It wasn’t quite as busy as I’d expected, but it was a rainy Tuesday evening in October, so they were probably not expecting a full house.

    More photos of the pub’s interior.

    They had nine pages of this….

    I’ve never seen this before on a screen, it’s the pub’s live Untappd feed. Given that I’m easily pleased, I decided to log-in and make my presence known to everyone who was looking at the screen. Which, realistically, was probably only me and I already knew that I was there. But, it kept me amused.

    This is one of my contenders for favourite pub of the year, because the environment was welcoming, some thought had gone into the decor and the beer choice was marvellous. The service was friendly, it was a comfortable environment and there was a sense of excitement about the proceedings. All  very lovely.