retiredmartin

Some people use pub cats to attract your attention; I’m sticking to weird Boney M references. And of course, the lure of Stourbridge.

This was a Friday night beer and curry with Dereham’s top toper  Charles. I think Mrs RM was “smashing the system” or something that night. We missed her.

We chose a Friday night because a) that’s when the pubs would all be open and b) that’s when the new Premier Inn was cheapest.

This time, Street Map works better than OS to show you the enormity of our crawl.

Pre-drinks we took in the best bits of Stourbridge High Street.

I admired the tiling,

while Charles admired stocked up on appalling rhymes for future posts.

Reluctantly, I had to admit that “Golly Gosh ! Chicken Rogan Josh” is a winner, Mister Daves.  We resisted the call of the microwaveable Balti, and also the pie in the idiosyncratic Duke William.

Charles thought Stourbridge a surprisingly attractive little town, helped by pedestrianisation.  Pub Curmudgeon visited earlier this year, but we failed to spot the commemorative plaque.

The new Good Beer Guide gave us four new entrie, making it one of our target towns.

Barbridge was a place that had looked a likely pre-emptive when I stayed here last year, Annoyingly, I only noticed it just outside the Talbot Hotel at 9am in the morning, when even I couldn’t really complain about it being closed.

At 5pm on a Friday it was just warming up, the bar seats and beer barrels filled with the rich diversity of Stourbridge life.

The beer range may say “micro/craft bar hybrid“,

but little else did.  Bustling, earthy and unpretentious, it had a lot in common with Black Market in Warsop or London Calling in Rugby, which worked for me.

This one will split opinion.  BRAPA will admire the punk styling, the joyous site of yellow fluorescent jackets in pubs, and the cheery abuse banter at the bar.

Pub Curmudgeon and other purists may bemoan the seating choices – barrels or cinema seats.

But Mudgie would have approved of a soundtrack of Quo, Creedence and Skynyrd.

The beer was very strong, and apart from White Lion’s Bob (NBSS 3), fairly unusual.  Doing a good impression of Mrs RM, Charles started the evening with a 6.7% IPA (NBSS 3), which is the sort of thing I do at Manchester Keg Festival.

There is probably a whole post to follow on the Barbridge toilets, once I’ve had legal clearance.  Here’s a taster;

Too early for curry, so we went in search of Black Country scran at the Red House Boutique, shown next to Delightful Deserts on the WhatPub extract.

Just to annoy Charles, I realised at the door that this used to be the Hogshead, which I did on 8 October 2002 (made that up), so I didn’t actually need to re-do it.

Good job I got pushed, the Red House is unmissable.

A brilliant beer range, only lacking the Bathams.

But the Holden’s and Oakham Green Devil (both NBSS 4) were superbly presented, albeit in Enville and Hobsons glasses.

Perfect to wash down some gourmet scotch eggs.

Again, a good mix of Stourbridge life, with a lot of conversation about Cradley Heath and Jack Russell Terriers at the bar.

Even some Stevie Nicks for Mudgie on the Vintage TV, though I suspect his attention would have been wandering toward the Robinsons cider, as was the case with Charles.

I have no idea what baseball cap bloke was watching. Five points if you do.

It was time to head north to walk off the scotch egg, and Charles’s beer choices,  and find some Bathams.