retiredmartin

An interesting but pointless debate about our dullest county yesterday.  The chap who rated Wiltshire below Bedfordshire is clearly the sort of troll this blog thrives on.

Lincolnshire gets bad press from the bourgeois and beer bloggers alike, mainly because of being flat and having seaside resorts that prioritise fun over prosecco. Which reminds me I need to go back to Skegness this year.

Slightly less exciting than the “bracing coast”, but Grantham called last week.

This used to be exactly an hour up the road from us on the way north (Yorkshire within 2 hours !); now with A14 “improvements” it’s more like an hour and a half.  But on long trips we’ll always wait the extra 20 minutes ’till Newark, whose market square is a joy at 8am on a sunny morning.

Grantham isn’t unattractive, and its own Spoons is one of the best places in the UK to catch the rarer-spotted 9am lager drinker.

In fact the Stagger Inn appears to be competing for the pre-Spoons business. Opening hours of 6am to 9am will surely stretch even the Pubmeister and BRAPA.

Sadly, Grantham’s main attraction, the display of Lady Thatcher’s handbags in the town museum, was again closed, much to Mrs RM’s consternation.

The second best attraction is, of course, never shut;

“Why can’t we go in there ?”  said Mrs RM, clearly an unprofessional drinker who never walks further than absolutely necessary.

“And must you keep stopping to photograph banks and dead cake shops ?”

In complete contrast to the Angel &Royal, where we once stayed for £35, BeerHeadZ is your typical micro pub in many ways. Except it’s now part of a mini-chain, so it can’t be. Quite why Retford and Grantham get one but Newark doesn’t, I can’t explain.  That castle has been standing derelict for years.

Plenty of seating, so you can guess where the customers were.

But the locals parted like a Stoke City defence to let me see the pumps, then gave me the benefit of their beer advice.  I like that.  You instantly know which beers are selling fastest.

A North Riding Stout and a Tickety Brew Blonde for the blonde*, as it happened. Cool, beautifully presented in top quality glasses and with a Northern head. Noticeably, only cask being served at 2pm. Micro pub prices, as well.

Mrs RM looked at her phone, I joined in a conversation about the late, great Tom Petty whose career was being debated at the bar. Being a music bore, if not a beer bore, has its advantages when folk want to know where the Travelling Wilburys singles got in the chart. On cue, the lady in charge put on Tom’s greatest hits, a fabulous accompaniment to an afternoon’s drinking.

Quite how the conversation then got onto “Nellie the Elephant” I never found out.  Anybody know the link ?

Very pubby, and Mrs RM liked it, which is all that matters.

Before Grantham CAMRA ask, yes I have done the other excellent pubs in town, including the inimitable Nobody Inn.

Any of them would make an ideal warm-up for Grantham’s curry scene, now centred on the three (count them) Nepalese restaurants.  Not all on the same day, mind you.

 

*Am I allowed to say that ?  Mrs RM is very keen to make it clear that she drinks the pints in our house.