On our way to a brewery break in Cropton we stopped at Malton for a last bit of Wi-Fi quiche before entering the Moors. The big news in Malton is Brass Castle’s cutting edge bar, but we fancied coffee and battenburg cake in the Spotted Cow in Malton.
It’s a Tetley Heritage Inn, which is still generally a pretty good sign of a good pub, even if the Tetley is a shadow of the beer it used to be. Actually it just OK here (NBSS 3), though Tetley really isn’t a beer you drink in halves; it needs a good head. I liked the fact the other beers were from Courage and Marston, rather than those new fangled Black Sheeps and Copper Dragons.
The pub and other customers were wonderful. I may introduce a scoring system for customers, in which case this would score NOCSS 4. The regulars here looked like the cast of Heartbeat; you could almost have been in Yorkshire.
The pub address is Cattle Market, because it backs onto the cattle market, and a lot of folk were coming in for their mid-morning cake and cobs.
You just don’t find bar counters like that in Brew Dog.
There were touches of Leighton Buzzard’s Red Lion, which I’m delighted I shall be revisiting now Buzzard’s micropub is in the Guide.
The lived-in feel extended to several rooms, including a classic tap, lounge and pool room, all with Pub Curmudgeon-approved pub furniture. I believe the sauce bottles were for bacon sandwiches rather than being ironic and arty.
The Tap felt a bit like an inner sanctum, so we used the lounge, which had some great daytime TV on. While I nosed around, Mrs RM hid the cake from me. It wasn’t a good start to our minibreak.

Beautiful pub to start a break with. One that I think I have sadly driven right on by. You should know after years of marriage not to leave a cake unattended.
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Ha. Yes, and chocolate. I do take a sip from her beer occasionally though.
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It looks a smashing little pub.
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Good to hear that the Spotted Cow is still going strong – I seem to remember its future being threatened a few years ago.
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Current landlady seemed the sort who’d been there years; can imagine a struggle when they retire. A real wet (and cake) led pub.
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