Today’s blogging advice (courtesy Life After Football); if in doubt about your featured image, go with Bass.
My last Kent tick meant another long journey to the heart of Thanet (and beyond).
Cliftonville, you may remember, is the place that sparked a frenzied public inquiry recently when it was revealed there was no micropub in town.
I’m not sure the Cliftonville Tap House is quite your usual micro, either, but if fits perfectly in what Wiki describes as an “area” of Margate.
Walking from Margate station up Northdown Road feels like walking from Hastings to St Leonards, a vibrant mixed suburb.
There’s some gorgeous rundown shops,
some seafront culture,
and a Proper Café.
Batchelors looks the sort of retro café that charges you a fiver for a filter coffee in Bethnal Green, but not in Kent.
You can walk the cakes off along looking for this house with 7,000 cartoon figures in it.
Anyway, pub. Sleuths among you will have worked out this was the place that caused my meltdown on Royal Wedding day.
Below left are today’s hours, stuck on Facebook the week after I visited and found it shut; on the right are the hours on Facebook (and the door_ that day. Let Simon be warned.
As I always say, it’s not the hours themselves, it’s an inability to be clear what they are and then stick to them that frustrates.
So it would be fair to say the Tap wasn’t off to a flier when I finally got through the bamboo dangly things (Grrrr).
But from there on, it was magical. And I’m not just saying that as my last Kent tick.
A French-sounding barman gave me a run-through of the cask and keg, seemed genuinely interested in both, and answered my increasingly weird questions for the next half an hour.
“Is there CAMRA discount ?” (the vital one, clearly)
“Is that Squeeze playing ?”
“Which Squeeze album is it ?”
“Is there a loo ?” (yes, the tiniest unisex loo yet)
There’s a touch of the mystical Fez, a sprinkling of Rock & Roll Ale House, and a dash of Norrebro craft bar. Quite a feat.
OK, I may have been swayed a bit by the Bass tat, and the Beavertown-style taps (below), and the 10% CAMRA discount on cask and KeyKeg.
But the beer, from Pig & Porter Skylarking (NBSS 4) and Pressure Drop (Key Keg, so no NBSS) was sensational.
I know some folk who will hate it, with a big communal table, pulsing indie soundtrack giving way to Opera, and a general lack of mobility scooter.
For those folk, there is always the Northern Belle.
The Margate juggernaut shows no sign of slowing down any time soon.
For a micro pub it seems like some fantastic place.
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Here we go again..
I’m Tempted to say you’re right, Ian.
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Congratulations on completing a county that has a large allocation, a challenging geography and more micropubs than anywhere else. Makes Highland look easy!
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Is that a WATNEYS RED BARREL ON SALE bar towel lower right in the penultimate photograph ?
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Yes, it is. It’s treasure trove of brewerania.
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So a sort of Micro Turfless Malt Shovel Tavern ?
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Oh, well done Sir. Spot on. Better beer than the Malt Shovel (which wasn’t vad).
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It’s almost foolproof 🔺🔺🔺 always gets a nibble from Rich too 👍
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It they hatin’, they still readin’. As Taylor Swift sang.
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Indeed …that is surprisingly insightful from Taylor
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She’s from Reading, you know (Pennsylvania).
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The New Yorker has said she is generally portrayed “more as a skilled technician than as a Dylanesque visionary”. Good grief.
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Probablt better than being compared to Ermintrude
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“Guess the missing letters”
‘ob’; which is short for Order of the Bath, yes? 😉
“Unfussy”
Possibly a good way to advertise a micro; show coffee but it’s all gone and just sell the beer. 🙂
“All inanimate life is here”
Pfft. I don’t see any Cowboy Bebop.
“this was the place that caused my meltdown on Royal Wedding day.”
Indeed. But, on the bright side, you get to go back to Margate! 🙂
“when I finally got through the bamboo dangly things (Grrrr).”
Bamboo dangly things? You have no idea how hard I’m trying not to be risqué. 🙂
“A French-sounding barman gave me a run-through of the cask and keg,”
Was he on loan from the Cinque Ports? 😉
“I know some folk who will hate it,”
Thus, choice is what makes the world go round. 🙂
Cheers
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I thought for sure the question after “Which Squeeze album is it?” would be “Any idea which studio they recorded this one in?” 😉
As micros go, this really does look like a good one.
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If I’d said that you’d have KNOWN I make this stuff up, Mark ! I did make him keep going back to the HiFI to see which tracks were on it He must have got fed up as he then changed the tape for some French indie.
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I think the partial word is Blobby. I’m sure Noel’s pal is going to be perfect as the new head of UK borders.
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“They shalt not pass”
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