retiredmartin

These are the days of our lives. En route to returning my Sis to craft central (Falmouth) I’m staying in the Royal Grosvenor in Weston for £32, mere feet from the premier Wetherspoons in town.

It’s my third trip to Weston and it’s still a hard place to get your head round – tacky seaside resort, cutting edge art enclave, retirement home ?  Taking the three pubs I’ve just visited as representative may be stretching it, but I’d say it’s lovably lively, unpretentious and in need of a bit of quirkiness.  I’ll explore the northern half tomorrow.

A street back from the beach, the Regency is as good a seaside town centre local as I’ve seen in some time, full of mature locals gathering for the Sunday quiz.  The pub design is classic, however familiar the layout, and features a sublime Bass clock and wood-panelled bar.

Sis’s slight apprehension at intruding on the local pub quiz is allayed by the lovely quizmaster, we finish our decent Bass (NBSS 2.5) at leisure and wish this was our respective locals.

Yards away, we stumble through a number of urine-filled alleys (the High Street) to reach the Brit Bar, a small home of live acoustic music and some rare darker beers.  It’s ideal for young folk wanting to listen to  decent acoustic versions of Kings of Leon on posing stools, but strangely compelling to mature old blokes too.  Homebrew was a solid NBSS 3.

No idea why, but the grilled halloumi in the Spoons called us, and we were impressed by the staff’s attempts to meet our craft needs (Weston is no Falmouth though).  The Cabot Circus has the best beer in town though, even if it is Butcombe’s Christmas beer and a superb Broadside (NBSS 3.5).  The pub/hotel itself is beautifully refurbished.

Sis has just sneeked a can of 13 Guns back to her room, so I hope it’s as good as it was on cask in Cambridge recently.

St Austell and Luxulyan tomorrow.

*With apologies to Kingsley Amis