As I often say, one of the objectives of this site is to guide our foreign tourists to places they wouldn’t normally dream of visiting. Like Stockport.
Or Windsor.
A second-rate Slough I hear you cry. And indeed, the UK’s top place to work is a hard act for Windsor to compete with.
But Windsor is apparently a top place to get married, and Airbnb has some real bargains if you look around.
But does Windsor have any competition for Slough’s best pub, the venerable Moon & Spoon ? I popped in GBG newbie Corner House to find out.
Clearly top PubCo Greene King has seen some merit in Windsor (strictly New Windsor I guess) as they’ve invested a few quid in this cute little backstreet alehouse to make it look just like the Southampton Arms in NW5. Sincerest form of flattery and all that.
I wouldn’t have recognised it as Greene King. That’s a compliment. It’s every inch what an America expects a modernish English pub to look like.
One point for the seating, less half a point for the cushions.
In fact, looking back at these photos, it gets better.
I counted eleven handpumps, the minimum allowed in a new Beer Guide entry in the Home Counties in 2018.
I counted eight customers, comprising a group of six middle-aged Americans hiding upstairs, a posh Old Boy, and myself.
To be fair it was 3pm mid-week, but that’s a bad equation.
If in doubt, always pick the unfined pint of Moor so you can complain about Somerset murk. It was decent, actually, cool and tasty enough (NBSS 3).
The staff were some of the best all year, polite and chatty and dealing with some unspecified fuss from Posh Old Boy about the Scotch eggs, which had clearly been held up somewhere near Preston.
Even better was the lunch; a big bowl of vegan salad that actually tasted of something.
James Brown sang “Get Up Offa That Thing” to an audience of two, and the Corner House sold one half pint the half hour I was there.
But the Americans clearly loved it, and frankly that’s all Windsor cares about.
So the vegan salad tasted of “something”.
But was that “something” pleasant?
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It tasted of vegans.
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Tee hee.
It’s a few years since I was last in Slough, but the Alpha was OK. The Herschel Arms was interesting, but keg only. That was after some trying too, and finding little else.
So we settled on poling over to Windsor.
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“…Slough’s best pub, the venerable Moon & Stars…”
Moon and Spoon ?
https://www.jdwetherspoon.com/pub-histories/england/berkshire/moon-and-spoon-slough
“I counted eleven handpumps…”
As it is a GK house, they’re probably all connected to the same cask. Each pull will have a small bottle of flavouring through which the ale is forced under pressure, giving it its strawberry, earthy, coffee, peaty or whatever taste.
Do we get an extra post tonight as putting the clocks back gives you an hour’s additional writing time ?
Very bad day for football – Hoddle and now Leicester.
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Just for you Fred, an extra post is indeed coming tonight. A Kajagoogoo special.
Moon& Spoon it is then.
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I’m not a fan of GK beers, but given a decent manager they can be excellent; Woodies ale House in Far Headingley, Eldon on Woodhouse Lane and Templar on Vicar Lane (all Leeds) are excellent examples where beer quality is good and the number of GK beers OTB is minimal.
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Richard,
It might be that Greene King can only satisfy demand for their beers in the lucrative free trade by taking beers from other brewers into some of their tied houses.
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Yes.
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I need my extra hour in bed to prepare me for the trials and tribulations of the Winter – particularly if the budget forces Tim to increase his prices over the symbolic £2.00 per pint threshold.
However, I look forward to reading your “Kajagoogoo special” whilst enjoying my cornflakes. In particular, I am keen to learn who brews the said “Kajagoogoo special” and whether it is cask, keg, bottled or canned. A photograph of its lacings would be particularly informative !
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I’m “Too Shy” to show you the lacings etc etc
Actually, off to bed. Do it tomorrow morning.
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It does look like a nice place. I’ve noticed in your photos and some of Simon’s pubs that have what appear to be unvarnished wooden floors (or perhaps the varnish has been allowed to wear away). Is this common? Has a nice kind of “old West” look to it, but maybe that’s just me.
I dislike the idea of middle-aged Yanks in an English pub, unless it’s people who read your blog, in which case it enhances the pub’s atmosphere to no end. 😉
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Ha Ha. I like the idea of anyone in pubs who provides Duncan, Si or me with good copy, irrespective of nationality or frankly weird choice of drink.
I think you’re onto something with the floors but I never look down, Mark ;-0
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I’ll send you a selfie from this one next January Mark:)
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Talking of tourists I’d recommend First Man as an excellent movie.
Why ? I hear you ask.
Well yesterday as tourists here in Key Largo we started off with a couple of pints of locally-brewed ale in a dive bar.
Seven hours,gazillions of beers and bourbon chasers later we ended up in a members-only Elks club singing Little Ole’ Wine Drinker Me to a bunch of equally pissed geriatrics.
Oy vey what a vicious hangover today – so bad we had to sit it out in a darkened cinema rather than sunning our sorry asses under a palm tree.
Back in action tomorrow.
Hopefully.
The Prof.
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As Martin pointed out, the Blues Brothers are sadly no longer with us. The Good Ol’ Boys seem to be still going strong though.
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“The Americans clearly loved it” but were they asking what had happened to the drapes ?
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I would have had to visit Eton & Windsor brewery if I’d been down there, they make some excellent beers.
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Very nice pub – that painting in the first photo could almost be a mirror…
Really like the curved corner entrance doors – lovely feature…
But (there always is one) despite their good job, GK couldn’t resist sticking their standard formula, micro-mimicking white tiled keg tap wall in there could they…? Makes the bar look like part of the toilet….
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This used to be a GK, but I don’t think it is anymore. It’s a sister pub to the Sussex Arms in Twickenham – same owner as Big Smoke Brew Co, which is based in another of their pubs I believe.
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Thanks Dom. WhatPub says GK but I guess it relies on regular surveying. And many GK pubs are operated under brands that don’t betray ownership any more. Have retitled the post, anyway.
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The building could be owned by Greene King but leased to someone who is permitted to run it as their own free house.
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Good point. NB The Corner House website tells you nothing about ownership.
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