More Leicestershire thrills, as I make a first ever stop in Great Glen, named after the lesser known Sex Pistol or possibly the better known Squeeze(r).
All of you know where Great Glen is, so I’ll spare you the map. Just another stop off the A6 between Desborough and Leicester.
Oh, go on then. I’d hate you to get it mixed up with the Great Glen in Scotland.
Great Glen is (apparently) famous for its Chinese takeaway
“The Chinese takeaway restaurant Tasty Kitchen is located next to The Pug & Greyhound. It has become locally famous for Stephen Chan’s Tasty Chicken, a popular item from their menu which was invented by Stephen Chan in the 1980s. The recipe is kept secret, thus Tasty Chicken can only be purchased at Tasty Kitchen.”
Sadly, at 11am I failed to taste this delicacy. Instead I had 20 minutes to trudge through fallen leaves, avoid small dogs, and find something dramatic.
The Royal Oak looked the village boozer, the Pug & Greyhound looked the place you take your Mum for Sunday lunch. It was impressively equipped, with a Tiki Tiki bar (outside), boules pitch, and life-scale gorillas. Some pubs just give you Bass from the jug and Annie Lennox.
Here we got “Return of the Mac”, two Old Boys at the bar, two Old Gals in the lounge, two contrasting hand pumps.
“That’ll be £1.80 altogether, boss“.
Do you get irritated the way young bar staff say “altogether” when buying a pint ? I guess there’s bigger issues in the world, but not many.
It was a well-kept half of the house beer, oddly labelled as Mansfield but clearly brewed in a big tank in Wolves.
The chap at the bar was drinking Carlsberg, and made a comment to the effect that it was a bit early to be drinking real ale. It was ten past eleven !
I went for a stroll, attracting the suspicion of the pashmina Paulines who immediately assumed I was looking for the loo; they were sort of right.
And there on my travels I found it; the Doom Bar pump hidden in the lounge. I can only assume that after my recent promotion of Doom it’s being held back for regulars.
It was cheery enough, we even got some Kid Creole (“Stool Pigeon”) next up, and as I left the young barman said “Cheers mate. Take care” which is pretty much the model response.
Nice village gastro all-rounder, and if you ever want to hear the state funeral of Churchill on LP this is the place to come.
retiredmartin 
First!
(and now to read the post) 🙂
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First what ? Oh, first to comment. And Dave was second, Clearly that time difference again.
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Is lager allowed earlier than a cask ale? Curious on the logic behind that.
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Clearly that’s the only explanation. Perhaps some obscure Leicestershire licensing law ;-o))
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“named after the lesser known Sex Pistol or possibly the better known Squeeze(r).”
Is that the infamous Guy the Gorilla from the London Zoo in the first photo?
“I’d hate you to get it mixed up with the Great Glen in Scotland.”
Over here Great Glen would be that Rhinestone Cowboy fella.
“Great Glen is (apparently) famous for its Chinese takeaway”
Did Burton Overy separate from Great Glen because they ‘egged’ them on too much?
(I really should have my better half approve my comments before I post at times)
“thus Tasty Chicken can only be purchased at Tasty Kitchen”
We have that over here. It’s called KFC. 😉
“Autumn, or Fall if you’re Russ”
I was going to note that leaves tend to ‘fall’ in the Autumn, but… 🙂
“Unique pub sign”
Very considerate of them when you think about it. If one gets used to climbing on these gorillas they might try to do it with a real one sometime!
“two contrasting hand pumps.”
If the Crafty Pug is going to look like a pug, couldn’t the Mosaic at least have some old Roman tiles stuck to it?
“It was ten past eleven !”
Maybe by early he meant it shouldn’t be drunk till Christmas?
“they were sort of right.”
That montage below looks familiar from somewhere else.
“AND HIDDEN DOOMBAR IN GREAT GLEN”
As for hidden doom bar, if you hurry you can collect Garden Hermit’s free pint of same!
https://ghpub.blogspot.com/2018/11/five-find-lost-island-pt-4-house-of-ale.html?showComment=1542893010100#c6801190711929539721
Cheers!
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We should have a referendum to approve your comments, you mean.
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“Yes, just give me ten years of your life,
And I’ll trade in that puny flab for living muscle….
…Five years ago I was a four-stone apology…
Today I am two separate gorillas!”
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Puzzled by a seemingly unremarkable pub making it into the Leicestershire section of the GBG, I had a peek at WhatPub. The other pubs in the village were last surveyed in 2015 but the Pug and Greyhound in 2018. Must have been very high NBSS scores to make the visit worthwhile?
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There’s two sorts of pubs south of Leicester. The really basic Bass or Pedi boozer and the smart gastropub with a beer from the microbreweries near Rutland. The Pug isn’t quite in either camp. Yes, illuminating to look at date last surveyed. I do wonder if “come and visit, we;ve got x on” is more effective than “come and visit, our Bass is superb”. Would explain why all these pubs BeerMat visits aren’t in GBG.
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A Leicestershire pub I’ve never heard of! Good work and a pistols and squeeze line in for good measure 🍻🍻
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Yes, it’s a bit upmarket for you BeerMat !
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Never say never!!!
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Well, I guess you’ll have run out of LE67 boozers by 2034.
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I’m banking on a rush of new micros in Whitwick and the Trappist monk brewery to keep me going till 2040 at least 😉
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The Royal Oak was my local when I lived in Glen. Back then it had a basic, tiny, unspoilt bar at the front full of locals who never talked to me despite using the pub for several years. I liked it. The Yews and the Greyhound were for Sundays, the Crown (closed) was for youngsters. Me and the missus still miss Tasty Chicken…
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I know what you mean about locals ignoring you but still liking it !
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The Royal Oak strikes me as a bit unusual for a pub in that it appears to be adjoined to an ordinary home; and it’s not, like so many micropubs are, located on any sort of shopping street. I imagine this is the sort of “backstreet boozer” that people speak of, a pub that’s truly nestled within a neighborhood, rather than being on a corner or indeed being a free-standing building. Have I got that right?
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Yes. With a skittle alley!
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Yes, exactly. Quite a lot like this in Leicestershire, particularly Loughborough. My favourite sort of pub.
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“Some pubs just give you Bass from the jug and Annie Lennox” . I’d definitely settle for both those, rather than a bunch of wooden gorillas, covered in bird shit, which have seen better days. You really wouldn’t want your kids climbing all over them, notice or no notice.
Also, I don’t feel as though I’ve missed out, in any shape or form, for never having set foot in Great Glen, and almost certainly never intend doing so. All the same, thanks Martin, for bringing the place to our attention, and saving us the trouble of a visit.
“Come and visit, our Bass is superb”, would get my vote, but not the tickers. With this in mind, I’m having serious doubts about the GBG selection process which, incidentally, has already started for my local branch; and I’m referring to the 2020 edition!
A lot can happen in the 10 months before the Guide hits the bookshops, and then there’s an additional 10 months before the next edition appears.Years ago, this wouldn’t have been too much of a problem, but the licensed trade is so fickle and so transitory in this day and age that it’s a brave organisation which commits too much to paper.
ps. Mansfield Brewery closed in 2002.
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Yes, Mansfield sadly closed but Marston’s have bravely kept the brand going, I’ve seen the Bitter going cheap in a few pubs, but the idea of a Mansfield-branded house beer in rural Leics is an odd one.
You make some points about gorillas I’d never have thought of, Paul !
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I used to visit Great Glen regularly to see family, when they lived there and ditto re Roysl Oak comments, nice enough but felt like a local pub for local people…. no banjos though. Nice for a swift pint to escape the family !
Glen also famous for its one star studded inhabitant….the mighty Englebert Humperdinck!
Tasty chicken was indeed.
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Very much an Engelbert sort of town !
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I wonder how many foreign tourists have been fooled by Great Glen? Probably the same ones who went to Wales and ended up on the outskirts of Sheffield.
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Or went in search of a small North Notts mining village called Rhodesia and ended up in Harare.
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Then there’s Pennsylvania, on the A46 near Bath.
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And a Dunkirk in the Potteries.
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…Not to mention Philadelphia, near Houghton-le-Spring.
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That 3.8% Crafty Pug Ale looks like Banks’s Amber Bitter.
Did it taste that good ?
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Sadly not at that level. I can’t remember it tasting of anything, actually.
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