Chester:
Victorian town-centre boozer. Pleasant staff, traditional (pubco) interior, decent cask ale, standard Stonegate pubco menu, decent enough beer garden (plastic grass, but otherwise fine). Near to be bus station.
Tag Archives: pubco
Biggin Hall
Coventry:
Whatpub Link
Website
Pub Heritage Link
We needed lunch, we wanted to see this pub as it was in the heritage guide, so from Coventry station, it was a taxi to here.
From the outside, it’s Brewer’s Tudor, built about 1923. Inside, it’s been altered, so the front bar looks pretty much normal pubco (Marstons), but there’s more history in other rooms.
Back to the matter in hand: Pedigree, 61 Deep and Doom Bore for real ale, all the other usual suspects. A predictable but not bad pubco menu, and a pleasant suburban local’s pub.
The Chesire Cat
Chester:
We’d passed this pub many times, and always meant to drop in, because well, cat, plus it’s an imposing site as you prepare to turn off the A41 and head for the A55, and a good lunch stop for us coming back this time.
It’s part of the M&B Vintage Inns chain, so traditionalish inside, food-biased, but feels like an old pub (which it is, to be fair). Good service and food- not the cheapest, but not too bad either. Can’t comment on the beer as I was driving. Right next to the Shropshire Union Canal. Sensible Covid precautions, overall a nice place. There’s accommodation here if you fancy it.
The Sun Verge
Rhyl:
Right on the seafront, next to a Travelodge. This was being built last time we were here, and we’ve gone from Whitbread to Marstons. Aagin, it’s a feedbag, nothing exceptional, nothing awful. Notablt pay-at-table by website, though. Only cask seemed Doom Bore.
The Submariner Cookhouse & Pub
Rhyl:
On the seafront, and attached to the Premier Inn, but operating semi separately. The chain is a rebranding of Brewer’s Fayre, so we know what to expect, and that’s about it. Whitbread, by-the-numbers family feedbag. Sensible covid precautions.
Post-Covid Revisit: The Drunken Duck
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.
Post-Covid Revisit: The Royal Exchange
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.
The Tappit Hen
Dunblane:
An overnight stop on a long journey north took us to Dunblane. A matter of yards from our B&B was The Tappit Hen. Nothing to do with poultry, a Tappit Hen is a drinking vessel.
The pub itself is traditional, small, and lovely. No food, but rammed at 5:30pm on a Friday. great beer, music at a sane volume, lovely locals and landlord: a fine start to our holiday.
The Boot Inn
La-di-dah Sutton Coldfield:
I don’t like Sutton, or as Google Maps and pretentious twats seem to call it “The Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield”. This is the place where residents have been known to paint out the Birmingham coat of arms on street names, declaring the aforementioned Royal status as justification. The place in the Midlands with the highest concentration of new Range Rovers outside Solihull.
If I stop ranting for a moment, there’s stuff to like about Sutton. There’s leafy suburbs (if you’re rich), it’s on the cross-city line. Sutton Park is lovely, there’s some very nice buildings, and there’s decent enough pubs, if you like your pubs in general a little bit too plush and food orientated for me. Shops were OK last time I looked (twenty years ago!), and there are independent restaurants.
The Boot is still very much enough of a pub to be pleasant. It’s clean, tidy, and recently refurbed inside, and big. There’s a strong push for food- it’s taken to callinmg itself The Boot Inn and Kitchen, like other pubs with gastropub pretentions. The food is actually a standard Punch Taverns menu, but looked OK.
I was actually only there to use their (pay and display) car park instead of suffering the inevitable disappointment at Good Hope Hospital, but I was running early so dropped in (for orange juice). Friendly staff, pleasant interior, and no arseholes (in Sutton!), so I wonder if I can engineer a visit without a car?
The Nags Head
Burntwood:
Evidently quite an old pub, this has a big site and car park. It’s fairly traditional, with a bit of a standard modern pubco makeover (Chef & Brewer, a branch of Greene King, via Spirit pub co). Nice enough place, pleasant barman, but beer a little pricey (but thankfully one Purity ale in addition to the Greene King stuff). Surprisingly no menus out at around 5pm on a Saturday, which seemed odd, but we were only pausing here for a drink en route- and the outside space was pleasant.