Monthly Archives: August 2015

Is this the best Wildlife pub in London? The Queens Head, Acton Street, WC1.

by

0

Me at WembleySo keen were we to get in the The Queens Head we were sat there at five to twelve waiting for the doors to open. Once in it didn’t take long for the pub to start to fill up. I know there were 80,000 RL fans down to watch the Rugby League Challenge Cup, but London is a big place and I didn’t think there would be any other RL fans in. I was mistaken, because after ten minutes we were engaged in good humoured banter with a group of lads from ‘Fax, replete in team colours. This is the best thing about RL, you can have a laugh, friendly rivalry and wear your colours, wherever you go, even if you are sat in the middle of the opposing supporters end. It was the same story last year when we went to The Rake and found it full of Castleford fans; ‘A mate told us it was really good beer and you don’t get that down here much.’ I didn’t know there was anyone from Cas’ who knew that Borough Market existed, let alone where it was?

The Queens Head is a typical London, mid terrace, single front, long and thin, one room, bar on the left as you walk in, sort of pub. I think there’s a survey to be done on which side the bar is on in these Victorian pubs. I think the sinister side would win for dexterical reasons? As well as us RL followers there were some beer tickers, the ubiquitous (in London) I can shout louder and sound posher than you types, and some locals, having some sort of community meeting. Quick, better get it listed as an ACV!

Retrospectively I shouldn’t have stood in the door of the gents and shouted to my son, ‘Get in here quick and have a look at this!’ In the diverse metropolis that is our capital, no one seemed to bat an eye lid as my bearded, six and half foot, twenty something son joined me in the gents. I pointed up at the reinforced glass skylight in the roof. Framed by the overhanging foliage was the outline of a fox cub. We watched while Reynard stretched and shuffled. He couldn’t see us, but like when women instinctively know to adjust their clothing, he sensed us watching, so he slowly stood up and slinked off.

I’d read the accolades about The Queens Head and was surprised they only had three cask ales on and maybe twice as many keg lines, plus some decent cider and a lengthy bottle list. I decided to pay the premium for a half of The Kernel IPA  (Simcoe, Columbus), I’ve never had anything bad from these people, although they are usually expensive they’re worth paying for so I had another one. I also tried half of Stone & Wood, Pacific ale, Untappd said it was a typical Ozzie brew, strewth, I didn’t know they went in for as much fruitiness down under – pleasant, but a bit thin after The Kernel; shouldn’t have had the strong one first, on reflection.

While I played the field a little my conservative son stuck on the cask ale. Springhead brewery beers were on two pumps; Robin Hood & Outlawed. He declared the Robin Hood to be really good and totally different to the last pint he drank a few weeks ago (which he liked). So, I had a taste of the bitter and then another and then a pint and then one of the Outlawed golden ale. Both were out and out, by far the best beers that I had tasted for a long time. To adopt CAMRA’s beer scoring criteria, they were both a 5 – Probably the best you are ever likely to find. A seasoned drinker will award this score very rarely. The few times I have had beer as good and as fresh as this was either in a brewery, at a beer festival (that I’ve set up) the night before it opened or in my old man’s pub years ago. It was almost a shame that kick off time loomed and we had to make our way across town to Wembley. I’m back next week for the England game and The Queens Head will be the first calling point after alighting at Kings Cross, it’s literally five minutes walk from the station. I honestly can’t wait.

Unfortunately, while I waxed lyrical about the quality and condition of the ale, I overlooked the need for a few photos, but you’ve all seen a photo of a pub before so you’ll have to content yourselves with one of me at Wembley.

Ossett Brewery takeover Granary Wharf

by

0

Archies BarGranary Wharf is a really cool part of Leeds and there are some of my current favourite pubs in Holbeck. I saw this poster yesterday, in a window down there. My first thoughts were; bucking the trend, new bars opening here, not closing like everywhere else.

So, can the scene in this part of Leeds, stand another bar? Of course it can, situated in the railway arch previously occupied by the old Wasabi Teppan – Yaki restaurant, nestled between The Hop and Candlebar. The question is, can this little Venice stand another Ossett Brewery outlet? When it opens there will be three Ossett premises within 75 yards of each other. I get it that with the opening of the Southern entrance to the city station that this previously neglected part of town is going to boom, but three premises all within throwing distance of one another.

Fair enough, The Hop is a traditional sort of bar/boozer, pies and pints and I quite like it in a troglodytic sort of way. Similarly Candlebar has it’s own identity, craft beer, light meals and none of Ossett excellent cask ales. Archie’s, from what I can glean appears to be a collision between the two, craft beers and real ales. The USP appears to be, ‘a mix of eat in and take out dining options’. Maybe the ale is ancillary here and it’s the metropolitan type food consumers they are attracting? Ossett must be fairly sure because they have put £350K into the venture which brings their total investment into Granary Wharf to around a million quid. The brewery told YEP that it is a ‘Chameleon bar’, catering for breakfast, lunch and dinner, then morphing from that into a Friday and Saturday night venue. There certainly appears to be lots of gimmicky features like a VW Camper van counter, funfair mirrors and a sailing boat! Strangely, I could find no mention of Archie’s on the Ossett Brewery website, which is a bit suspicious from a company that seems to have more outward facing heads than the Hydra; each with a different name.

I’m looking forward to seeing it open and I wish Ossett every success. Privately, I wonder wether they are not being guilty of putting all their eggs in one canal basin. I will pass judgement in due course, but in term of the branding and the beer, I predict some Loiner composing a one liner about the beer and the canal.

The Cross Keys, Holbeck, Leeds

by

0

Cross Keys group

The Cross keys has been a pub since way back. At one point it was closed down for a good while until North Bar took it on about ten years ago. The ground floor is L shaped and in stark contrast to the original North Bar, the Cross keys is not a bar at all, it’s a proper pub, homely, cosy, well done out with a real pubby atmosphere, albeit a slightly upmarket one. Outside there’s a nice courtyard for summer drinking and smoking and up a spiral staircase there’s another room with it’s own bar. The toilets which are first rate and the kitchens are also on the second floor.

On the bar and the shelves were a bit of the best of everything, a really good selection of ales, if you couldn’t find something that you fancied here then you need to give up. Staff are very friendly and helpful and really looked after us from the moment we walked in. I could have chosen several of the draught ales, four cask, seven keg, but ended up with Marble Pint, a very pale and subtle bitter, it went well with my meal. I thought the prices were pretty reasonable for the city centre. The excellent North Prototype (brewed by Kirkstall) was only £3.10 per pint, the only reason I didn’t have this one was that it’s got quite a robust taste which might not have gone well with fish.

Cross Keys 1
Foodwise, I hadn’t eaten here before. I had though seen the place packed at Sunday lunchtimes with people queuing up for hearty looking traditional dinners which have won accolades. Ten of us were booked in and it’s always interesting to see how some places cope with more than four or five diners at once, some can’t even get that right. Our table was in the upstairs James Watt room (as in the famous engineer and not the Brewdog guy). It’s quite a good venue for a group like this, almost self contained, you can book the entire room with it’s own bar for functions. Everything was neatly laid out in readiness. The menu? I’d sum it up as modern British pub grub, you could have a substantial meal like Fish and chips or just a sandwich, which turned out to be equally substantial.

The only reservation I have got is the ‘mushy peas’. It said mushy peas on the menu but they weren’t mushy peas they were smashed, minted, processed peas. Folks, this is just wrong, this is a pub in Leeds, Yorkshire, The North of England. You have got to have proper mushy peas. Bachelor’s, steeped overnight with those little tablets and boiled up with salt and sugar. Yeah, they may be the vegetable equivalent of napalm, sticking to the pan and burning anyone they come into contact with, but it’s got to be proper mushy peas. Don’t get me wrong, the peas weren’t nasty, I tasted some, they were really nice, they just weren’t mushy peas. I would suggest a change of fayre or declaration on the menu; minted pea puree would be better?

Cross Keys fishfinger sandwichNow I’ve got that out of my system, I had a fish finger sandwich. Thick granary type bread with crisply battered, quality succulent fish goujons, stacked high just waiting to be slathered with ketchup and mayo. This is the sort of thing I would make at home for myself, if they turned out like these every time I would be well pleased. The biggest problem was knowing where to start. I can see me going back again and again, just for one of these. With a shared bowl of chips, which were crispy, crunchy, chunky this was a proper belly buster of a meal.

I’m not going to into detail about every dish, but the verdict from everyone was unanimously positive, especially about the chips and the gravy accompanying some of the meals. The quality of basic elements says so much about a kitchen. The service was excellent, ten meals all arrived at the same time, piping hot. Helpful staff repeatedly and specifically returned to make sure everything was okay. We all had drinks with our meal, a plentiful supply of corporation pop appeared without asking and with a decent tip for the staff, we threw thirteen quid each into the kitty. I think that represented excellent value for money.

The Cross keys is a good place to eat and drink, it would be an excellent venue for a working lunch or a private party too. If you’ve never been I would say get yourself down to Holbeck and try it, there’s some of the best boozers in Leeds tucked away down there.

The only thing that needs changing for me is the front door onto Water lane. It’s annoyed me for ages, it’s cheap looking, stark white and I bet many people have just walked past it, none the wiser. North Bar, you really need to get a new door, and a sign writer to paint the pubs name on it. Oh, and reclassify the (not so) mushy peas.

An Asset of Community Value or merely beyond the Calls? The Lamb and Flag, Leeds.

by

0

Lamb & Flag ext.I aired a few views on Assets of Community Value in my last post. Twenty nine pubs closing every week, but what about all the new pubs that are opening? I’m sat typing this on the location of Broadchurch so expect some Dorset related posts over the next few weeks. However, my general area of interest is Leeds where we have seen several recent additions to the city centre scene, and across the suburbs, proving, to me at least, that poor operators are failing and those providing what people want are thriving.

The Lamb and Flag is the latest addition to the Leeds Brewery pub portfolio. It always worries me that Leeds Brewery aren’t mentioned more often in reviews of the Leeds ‘craft beer’ scene. There are some pretty cool guides knocking around on the internet, but they tend to overlook Leeds Brewery. Okay The Brewery Tap gets a mention as does their flagship Midnight Bell, but what about Crowd of Favours ? It’s one of my favourites and hardly gets talked about. Anyway the Lamb and Flag only opened in July and everyone wants to have a look at a new pub so I headed down with a few friends one Saturday afternoon to see what it was like.

Lamb & Flag interiorThe Lamb and Flag is no refurbishment, it’s totally new and there was previously no licensed premises on the site. Although on a supplementary visit I got chatting to an older (he had a bus pass) CAMRA type bloke. He said he’d done a bit of research and found out that in the nineteenth century there had been a pub called The Thirteen Bells on the site and the semi derelict building down the passageway between the Parish Church, sorry Leeds Minster, had been The Royal Oak ale house once upon a time. I’ve got a good knowledge of Leeds going back thirty years and it’s always been offices that I can remember, a solicitors, I think.

As with all the six Leeds Brewery pubs, there has been a quality fit out, both interior and exterior have had a lot of thought and money invested. Insider Media says the venture, funded by NatWest, cost a six figure sum and created fifteen jobs.

Lamb and flag balconyA lot of focus has gone into the outside features. I like the fading, faux Leeds Brewery advertisement painted on the wall, and the other period details on the cleaned and pointed brick building, many folk would no doubt think that it had been there for many years. There’s a pleasant paved courtyard to the rear, overlooked by a substantial hanging balcony. On a sunny day, on either level, it’s a proper sun trap, with really pretty vistas over the low wall to Leeds Minster, almost as if the pub has borrowed the kirk yard for it’s own. As I sat with my pint of Thornbridge Kipling I wondered about assets of community value and how many of the residents of the third largest city in the UK had actually been inside the fine building that is Leeds Minster?

Inside the pub is light and airy with plenty of seating and room to stand around talking. The well appointed toilets are upstairs along with the access to the exterior balcony. There’s also another bar upstairs which can be hired out for private functions. The food menu follows the general Leeds Brewery modern pub grub style.
Lamb & Flag upstairsIn terms of beers there were the obvious Leeds Brewery standards on the bar and four guest cask ales. I’ve seen Thornbridge, several Great Heck, Sonnet 43, Navigation, Ridgeside and plenty other top brewers wares. There were some decent lagers on and a bottle range that would suit most, if not the out and out ‘craft’ drinker.

I’ve mentioned in a few recent reviews about the envelope of Leeds city centre being pushed out; Northern Quarter, Holbeck Urban Village and the like. Lamb and Flag, is another example, almost beyond the Calls … ? For me it’s a sure sign of where Leeds is going and providing they don’t go tits up having over extended by opening too many pubs far too quickly, I think savvy operators like Leeds Brewery are onto a winner here.

Lamb & Flag barSo what will the beery cognoscenti think of the Lamb and Flag? My money says it will never get the same clientele as Northbar or the like. What it seems to be looking towards is the more discerning drinker, young and old, who like a decent ale, or a ‘craft’ beer in a quality setting and doesn’t mind paying the premium which keeps the industrial lager drinkers at bay. I don’t think it will ever need to be classed an ACV and I don’t think the owners would thank you for it if you tried to do it. In any case, if it doesn’t succeed then it will close and in five years time no one will ever remember it had been there. A place as good as this is just not going to close though.

North Riding Brew Pub, Scarborough: Love the logo, love the beer

by

0

NR logoThe North Riding Brew Pub bill themselves as Scarbro’s premier brew pub. You can’t argue with this and I’ll have an even money bet with anyone that this is The premier pub, of any description, East of York, especially if you’re a beer lover. If you think you have a better candidate then stick it in the comments section and I’ll check it out.

Although this is a belting pub don’t make the same mistake as I did. Okay, a little mistake, but I can make it better for you if you follow this simple advice; It may be a long walk around from the town centre but you need to approach the North Riding Brew Pub from the Peasholm park side, avoiding the drudge of a walk along the, almost seedy, North Marine Drive, the only highlight of which is Scarborough Cricket club, in Yorkshire cricketing terms, second in importance only to Headingley Cricket ground.

NR LoungeThe pub has two rooms, a lounge and a tap room/games room. The lounge is traditional with a carpet, real fire and a bit of a gloomy Victorian character. It felt a bit dingy on a bright summers day. Don’t be disappointed as you walk in, forget the lack of pumps on the bar, just look at the tap list – nearly all the pumps are in the other room.

In contrast the tap room is light, bright and airy, wooden floor with a pool table in the middle and lots of cricketing memorabilia adorning the walls. I liked the tap room better than the lounge, the fenestration, including the impressive logo did it for me.
NR tap roomRegulars? There was a dozen and a half in at 12.30 on Saturday dinner time. An old chap and his dog reading the paper in the lounge along with a few visitors. The majority of locals and serious drinkers were in the tap room.
The most impressive feature of North Riding Brew Pub is the beer. Seven cask, three craft keg lines and two proper ciders. Originally starting as a brew pub, the brewer and landlord Stuart Neilsen has recently opened up North Riding Brewery in premises on the outskirts of town. Believe me, they will do well.

On my Saturday lunch time visit I started with Bad Co. Dazed and Confused (5.5%) £3.00/pint, dark, complicated, with quite a strong fiery alcohol taste. Next up was The Revolutions brewing Co. Unknown Pleasures (4.5%) £2.90/pint, I like the musical nomenclature from these guys. My third half was North Riding Brewery Galaxy bitter (4.3%) £2.60/pint, biscuity, peppery, a touch of bitter orange, maybe a hint of vanilla. Very complex, almost changing with every taste, I picked up on something different each time.

Mrs C just stuck to the Brass Castle, Life’s a Beach £3.00/pint? It’s not, life’s wonderful and so is this, keg beer with a big F! UnFiltered, unFined, Fantastic and Fun: Life’s a Beach has now overtaken Brewdog’s Dead Pony club in Mrs C’s favourite beer line up.
NR tap listI guess the overheads are a bit cheaper in Scarborough, but if you are used to city centre drinking and prices then you will have picked up on how cheap North Riding Brew Pub is, for what are all top products from good to outstanding breweries.

This is definitely a destination pub, so much so, it’s worth travelling to Scarborough for. You can train it from Leeds and it’s tempting to combine it with a visit to Malton’s Brass Castle tap. Travel out on the Coastliner, return on the train to avoid the bladder test of the bus. One beer ticker I chatted to came regularly from York on the train.

After walking around Scarborough, it was clear that nowhere else came close to North Riding Brew Pub . So I had to come back later for a couple more halves before we went out to dine.

NR regularsIt was much busier in the evening, but still had a really nice friendly atmosphere. On the second visit I chalked up a North Riding Brewery Bramling Gold (3.8%) £2.50/pint, another Life’s a beach and a Lagunitas equinox (8%) £3.75/half. At seven o’clock the brewer cum landlord was sat in the bar with his customers and we chatted with lots of friendly people. Everyone was pretty knowledgeable about their beers and I really enjoyed exchanging notes on Leeds bars and where to go in Scarbro’ with Graham and Ann. Don’t worry, we will be back to see you all soon.

I don’t like the taste of politics in my Beer

by

2

‘Badge of Honour’ for pubs in effort to curb closures says the blurb for CAMRA’s latest press release for the launch of this new scheme at GGBF. Soundbites such as ’twenty nine pubs closing per week’ and ‘The great British pub is a national treasure’ sound really cool and it’s all wonderful news that CAMRA aims to get 3,000 pubs listed as Assets of Community value by the end of 2016. But is it? I’ve been pondering this for some time and I might be having some doubts.

Firstly I have to nail my colours to the tree on the village green; I love pubs. More to the point I love a good pub, well run, with good people behind and in front of the counter. I wholeheartedly agree with the statement that our pubs are a national treasure that are truly worth saving. I’m also pragmatic and I have to ask why some pubs are closing? Simple, market forces. Have you ever seen a well run, busy pub close down?

Lots of things are blamed for the loss of our pubs; pubcos, supermarkets, fair rent, beer tax. Things like big mortgages, modern life and family commitments are often overlooked. Gone are the days when a bloke (and it usually was) walked to and from work and called in for a couple on the way home before tea. Both him and his partner are now stuck in traffic and one of them is racing back to collect the kids before after school club closes. Once upon a time people would meet friends in the local or down the club on a Friday or Saturday. They never imagined having a dinner party or a BBQ where the entire family can be entertained without recourse to the expense of a baby sitter. Times have changed and so pubs have to, and not always for the better.

Quite simply the ACV powers are a political sledgehammer. Designed by legislators, under political pressure from various campaigning groups who have an axe to grind against the major Pubcos. I’m not a fan either, but the ACV powers are indiscriminate and will hit the small free hold operator much harder. I support the Fair Deal for your Local campaign in every aspect. Unfortunately the aims may be a bit Utopic because whatever we think the pub, the assets, the money belongs to someone else.

Recently the entire nineteen pubs in the market town of Otley, West Yorkshire achieved ACV status. What about the licensees, what do they think? Well two operators have appealed the decision. Both of whom are quality operators and are in no way Pubcos.

The Old Cock, Otley is a resounding success and has achieved many CAMRA accolades. Bearing in mind the premises were ramshackle old cottages until four or five years ago, surely the pub can’t now be an ACV? The landlord Lee Pullan had a succesfull professional career, retired and fulfilled an ambition of having a pub. What happens if he wants to retire fully, because I’ll wager he has a lot of his retirement funds tied up in that pub, how does he get that money out if no one wants to take it on as a going concern? The other big question is how can Lee be successful when others have failed in the town? The answer here is quality with a big Q. Please don’t say pricing neither because the Old Cock is, for the locality, at the very top of the pricing structure.

What about the free hold couple that split up? The Landlady to whom ill health unexpectedly strikes? The licensee struggling on with undiagnosed clinical depresion? How do those people get out? How do they sell an ailing business? Do they just have to put their lives on hold for six months of misery while a group of local do gooders try to flog a dead horse? Mounting debts? The banks won’t wait six months, they’ll just cut off your line of credit and you go bust. It doesn’t sound too good now does it? It’s peoples lives we’re playing with, not every pub belongs to a big pubco.

Another issue that strikes me is if pubs are so precious then why are more and more opening in places like Leeds city centre? This tells me that there is a clear need for these premises, it’s just that the type of need is changing. A city with over three quarters of a million people will sustain these new ventures, but is it reasonable to expect little Otley (pop. 14,000) on the rural fringes to keep nineteen pubs going?

I can perhaps see the need for an ACV in a remote upland village where the single pub and centre of the community is threatened. But hold on, is it the centre of the community? If it was it wouldn’t be struggling would it?

Although I can see this from both sides, what I really dislike is the fact that one small group can tell someone else what they can or can’t do, with something they have invested time and money into. It’s a bit like someone coming along and putting restrictions on what you can or can’t do with your home (presuming you own it). For that reason, I don’t like the taste of politics in my beer, whatever political flavour that may be and would ask that those self righteous enough to dictate what hard working small business people can or can’t do as part of their crusade against pubcos should think again.

Whatever you think, if you are going to nominate your local for an ACV then please, please, please go and talk to the licensee first.

The Hole in the Wall & Indigo Alley, Scarborough

by

0

We came across The Cask by accident, the home of Scarborough Jazz club. It looked okay and there were a good few in the decent terrace outside. I ventured inside, only to be met with Theakston’s, Theakston’s, Cameron’s and Speckled Hen on the bar so I walked on a bit further.

Scarbro hole in wallUnfortunately that’s one of the vagaries of a CAMRA guide; the pub may be okay but it takes no account of diversity or the quality of the breweries on offer. Okay the CAMRA formula of real ale may be met but I, personally, want something more than what’s on offer here. You can get Speckled Hen anywhere, Theakston’s is similarly ubiquitous and I remember when Cameron’s was reviled by the holidaymakers from the industrial Yorkshire heartlands, ‘I’m telling thi, tha dunt want to be going in any of them there Cameron’s houses lad!’ I think we need to start grading the pubs, maybe real ale status and then real ale + , ++ , +++, depending on the variety and quality of the beers. By quality I mean, the quality of the brewers craft, I expect the quality of cellar craft to be exemplary wherever I go. You could even add an extra notifier for bottled beers?

Scarbro hole in wall barSat in the The Hole in the Wall there’s a sort of Rocamadour feeling. Tucked half way up a steep ravine leading out of Valley Drive, it is a proper hole in the wall with it’s cellar vault style windows. You wouldn’t think it could have a little garden outside, but strangely, it does. A friendly welcome from the landlord, you don’t see many of these nowadays, and a nod of acclamation from the handful of locals dotted around early Saturday evening. If I picked a fault, it’s all a bit gloomy, I struggled with a couple of photos, even at 1600 ISO. Mrs C and I tried the Welsh brewers Fellinfoel, Double Dragon and Rudgate Ruby mild, £2.60 for two halves of well kept real ale, very good. There was Hook Norton Old Hooky on, as well as the usual suspects.

If you walk up from The Hole in the Wall into the commercial centre of the town you walk along St Nicholas Street where there’s a few pubs and bars. The Scarborough Flyer is a large, sort of independent Wetherspoon’s, two meals for three pence ha’penny type of a place. I’ve no problem with that but with just Greene King IPA, Bomardier, plus two other similar mass produced standards on the bar, we decided to pass on this one. The Blue Lounge next door didn’t even have any hand pumps on the bar, forget it.

Indogo barYou might think that I wouldn’t be liking Indigo Alley, rooms available from £12.50, but I did. It’s a bit spartan inside. Think a single room, bottom budget modernisation, pool table and nothing an hour with a damp cloth and effective cleaning products couldn’t fix. Oh and the door. For some reason there’s a random door propped up in a corner. Indigo Alley was strictly locals, apart from ourselves. Think friendly locals, really nice people with dogs and one old lad with Spike, his rabid Jack Russell that wanted to rip the throat out of the five other dogs in the pub. Eventually he hauled it off outside, presumably to return shortly to finish off the rest of his pint. He never did.

Scarbro Indigo doorThere were, four real ales OTB and a real cider; Half Moon brewery Dark Masquerade, their own house ale Indigo brewed by Wold Top, Sonnet 43 India Pale Ale, and 4 T’s Interception on special offer at an unbelievable £2 a pint. I paid £4.50 for a pint of Sonnet and a half of Indigo. They also had a couple of decent draught lagers; Leffe and Krusovice. Both beers were in good condition. The Sonnet is a proper IPA, the Indigo tasted of soft tropical fruits with a sharper grapefruit touch. I liked this place, it’s nowt special inside, but it’s full of characters and it’s got decent beer.

Before going for an outstanding meal at the excellent Lanterna restaurant (Ciao Giorgio!), I rounded off the days drinking in the North Riding Brew Pub which will be the focus of the third and final post in this review of Scarborough.