Tag Archives: post-covid

Revisits, Walsall

Post-Covid Revisit: St Matthews Hall

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A day off work, and a friend was off too, so lunch and drink seemed like a good idea. This place being handy for the bus station was good, too.

You know what, ‘spoons have nailed this post-covid pub going. OK, it was Thursday lunchtime, not Saturday night, but spacing is adequate, screens are up, hand sanitizer all over the place, and even better, if you don’t mind using the app, you can sit in the beer garden and they bring you drink!

Other than that? It’s ‘spoons. So the beer is decent (cask ale!), the food is OK if unexceptional, and the toilets are, of course, miles away.

Revisits, Walsall, Walsall Wood

Post-Covid Revisit: The Drunken Duck

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It had been a very, very long time since my standard routine of waiting in the pub while some nice chaps cook my curry had been possible, so this was my second post-covid pub. The Duck is a bit more rough-and-ready than The Royal Exchange, so I was a bit wary.

To be fair, very well done. The same screens at the bar and one-way, but contact tracing, hand sanitizer, and sensible locals. It did feel a bit odd and lacking in atmosphere, but the Stella was drinkable. A subsequent visit was much the same, then…

….it shut.

Then re-opened, with a refurb- new flooring, a general tidy up, and some new flooring. It’s all a bit tidier, and not bad at all. No cask ale, but that’s been gone for years now.

Revisits, Walsall, Walsall Wood

Post-Covid Revisit: The Royal Exchange

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My first post-covid pub visit, and the first time back in a pub since March 20. First new pub since March 14, and less than a week after pubs were allowed to open.

It was nice, if a little odd. Sensible setup, good cleaning regime, reduced food menu, forcibly reduced beer choice as the delivery hadn’t pitched up. Most people were obeying distancing guidelines when we arrived, and hell, it was good to be in a pub again. Food was decent, and even if it had to be Guinness, we were in the pub.

A few members of the traveler community turned up (well, actually lots of them), which was fine, but they didn’t seem to be adhering to guidelines, which is something I’d feared from anyone after a few drinks (and a subsequent visit proved this with a few locals). Still they were in another room and the landlady kept a lid on it, to her credit.

2 more visits and the cask ale isn’t back on still, but I suspect that reduced footfall is the reason; cask here is usually excellent.