If this feels like the fourth post from Newport in a year, that’s because it is. And with a fourth stay in the Ibis Budget, I now officially own the place.
Another successful ticking trip, tinged with a devastating discovery;
There is an underpass (not shown on Google Maps) between the Ibis and Malpas Road, so I don’t get to do that chicken run across the M4 roundabout anymore. Life is so unfair. For your future reference, the underpass is hidden at the bottom of this street;
Thankfully it’s still a grim walk into town, enlivened by a pub along Malpas Road I really ought to go in soon. Nothing wrong with Courage Best.
Actually, the Lyceum is the only pub along the A4051/4042 into town, a walk that gives you the joy of tight verges on dual carriageways and the UK’s scariest tunnel under a railway station.
But pubs await on the other side, one of them new to the Beer Guide. Newport are definitely ensuring a good churn of GBG entries to ensure they get the tourist £ from Duncan and myself. Someone should tell them Simon isn’t due ’till 2031.
Anyone not constrained by the Guide would have spent the 30 minutes between trains in the Murenger or the Tiny Rebel, of course.
Instead Ihave McCann’s Rock ‘n Ale Bar at 3pm on a Tuesday to enjoy.
It was good to see McCann’s announcing their GBG arrival the week before the good book was released; it’ll make Pubmeister feel better about his own unintentional embargo breaking.
It’s good to see a pub in the Guide that doesn’t have the 3 hand pumps that CAMRA branches (allegedly) expect of all entrants…
Thoughts on the Cotleigh pump clip on a postcard please.
Trooper was well priced at £2.80 a pint, but the value dropped as the Guinness glass stuck to the rubber mat, so I lost 23% of it as I tried to lift it off the bar.
The glass then stuck to the beer mat, but luckily that didn’t spoil my enjoyment of the sloping pub, McCann’s unique feature (OK, Himley as well).
The Trooper wasn’t at it’s Stockport best either. Perhaps I was put off by the gunge sticking to the bottom of the glass. Lemmy wouldn’t have been such a wuss (am I allowed to say that ?)
At 3pm, the soundtrack consisted entirely of “Enter Sandman” and the other Metallica track I can’t name. Nothing for my death metal favouring son there.
As WhatPub drily notes;
“there is also Desperado tequila-flavoured beer on sale for the more daring drinker (served in schooners only)”
I might go back the next time I’m in Newport and be more daring.
I will be going back to Parc Pantry for breakfast next time. Just off the unpromising stretch of Malpas Road, this gorgeous café served a dish of chorizo hash to rival anything in the Northern Quarter (Home Sweet Home standard).
Newport on the rise.
retiredmartin 
By coincidence, on Monday night in the Royal Oak in Tunbridge Wells, they had Cotleigh Commando Hoofing (which was fine) and were advertising bottled Trooper for a bargain £4.50 (which I passed on).
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Bottled Trooper – oh dear. Mind, I had the bottled Red’n’Black (?) in a rock pub in Lancaster and it worked well
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I was thinking the same thing, as I was in said pub with Mudge. I gave the Cotleigh a miss, and instead went for the beer from Crate Brewery (can’t remember its name), plus a single-hopped ale from somewhere “oop north”. (You can tell I wasn’t in note taking mode, that evening!)
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Excused !
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“(You can tell I wasn’t in note taking mode, that evening!)”
You need to get to Regensburg and get your mojo back. 😉
Cheers
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As there is a new micropub about to open in Newport (the Cellar Door) no doubt there will be more churn there in due course.
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Hurrah !
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They can drop the Murenger with its solitary cask beer to make room for the micropub 😮
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Are you sure you’ve been to the same Newport 4 times and not 4 different Newports once each? There must be at least 10 in the UK.
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That is possible. But I’d think you’d remember that railway underpass 😱
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Re: the underpass. Agreed it’s unforgettable. It looks like something out of the movie Escape From New York… or an abbattoir.
Cheers
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Perhaps instead of an identikit bar, you’ve discovered an identikit town, 7 identical places all called Newport which you end up at no matter which direction you head in.
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Sometimes your blog can be very helpful in informing readers where not to go! And the uneducated think it’s grim oop North! Why do these people always put oop! when in reality no one actually speaks like that? Must be the same people who think it’s acceptable to have sticky bar tops and grungy glasses. Did they do food? God knows what the kitchen was like, or the cellar? A phone call to the local EHO methinks.
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All the best people know it’s grim darn sarf
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East Brum. That’s the worst. Report to follow.
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Grim down soof too ! Crisps only. Life is sticky, Richard.
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When life gets sticky you have to get your dishcloth out, some bleach and a lot of elbow grease – Old Yorkshire Proverb!
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