MATLOCK SPOONS PERSISTS WITH THE OLD-SCHOOL COFFEE MACHINE

 

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I knew we should have gone in Matlock‘s Spoons when we walked past last year on a glorious Summer day. Perhaps we did go in.  Google maps might know.

But Matlock is always worth a return trip, even if the M&S Food Hall makes you unreasonably irate by not recognising anything as part of the meal deal.

You always spot something of note on a return trip, even if it’s just the proximity of the football ground to the Wetherspoons.

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Come on Ashton !
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Duncan woz ‘ere

The big “attraction” in Matlock is the little car that got stuck on top of a pedestal in 1996 after misjudging a turn, and has been left there as a warning against the transitory nature of time etc.

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The driver got out

It’s a regal looking Spoons.

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Regal
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The only seat in the house

The Crown is a compact Spoons in the Nuneaton or Kidderminster style, and therefore absolutely heaving.  One photo says it all.

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Gentlefolk

Yes, this is where the Retired Gentlefolk (I only meet one of those descriptions) congregate. The Spoons model isn’t dead yet.

Notice the chap in the foreground with a pint of BBB.  Good man.  The Crown carries the usual exotica Iike Doom Bar and Abbot, but I played safe with the Thornbridge Stout, which was typically cool and tasty (NBSS 3.5). But £3.19 ? Wow.

The drama, which BRAPA would have loved, came when some bloke (let’s call him retiredmartin) asked for a cup for a flat white. Three times he irritatingly asked for a cup for a flat white. Three times the barman said “Americano or Latte“.  Then it struck me him.  They don’t have the new self-service machines in Matlock.  Matlock has no flat white.

Also no tables at all, so I took the last seat in the house, next to Noel. Fruit machines are quite hypnotic, aren’t they ?

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Watch Noel spin

 

 

 

 

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Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

24 thoughts on “MATLOCK SPOONS PERSISTS WITH THE OLD-SCHOOL COFFEE MACHINE”

      2. He’s probably playing it safe in case someone who drives similar to the fellow of the “little car” comes careening through the bloody window!

        And with that, I’m off to call my sainted mother about her botched cataract surgery. 😦

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  7. That Thornbridge Brock would cost £2.15 in our local Wetherspoons,they seem to now charge the same price for a 3.9% up to a 5.9% beer in our Wetherspoons.
    Been in The Crown once with the wife and it was packed,i am the guy with the rucksack and cap on.

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    Reply

      1. Thornbridge have pursued the ‘premium’ badge – abandoning their 500ml bottles a while ago in preference for 330ml ones so they could charge the same price for less beer and look more ‘craft’ at the same time…

        All relative though – £3.19 seems very reasonable for a pint of their premium ale (thanks to Tim’s discount warehouse), when a pint of BBB from a well known Cardiff brewery cost me £3.80 in a pub on the sunny south coast last weekend – but that’s another blog story…

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