retiredmartin

 

A second new GBG pub for Hull, but not one that had inspired much excitement, despite BRAPA’s positive pre-emptive review a couple of years back.  I see in the comments that John Watson said pessimistically “not a shoe-in for the GBG“.  But then John’s a Mackem.

I’d assumed Chilli Devil’s was one of those hipster places focused on £10.9 bowls of chow and gin, forgetting this is Hull. I was also unreasonably irritated by the apostrophe.

But I always get a frisson of excitement from the Land Of Green Ginger sign, just as you do on entering the City of Dan (Whitwick) or the City of Lights (Simple Minds).

You get to pass the George, with the smallest pub window in England and, coincidentally, Theakston Old Peculier.

In contrast, our new Guide hero looks like a Labour Club in Mexborough, always a good sign.

Fear not, Chilli Devil(‘)s, I thought you were wonderful.  Enthusiastic (almost gave me SatNav directions to the Yorkshire Brewhouse when I ordered a half), cheery, warm.

The beer was cool, the banter bold, the music blues.

A similar crowd to Vintage, all having a great time.

“If I’m a nuisance tell e to b****r off”

“Nah, I’m not fragile”

Actually, one of those lines may have been mine, I’m not exactly ascribing dramatis personae to these little plays that go in in Proper Pubs.

If I’d been bored, I could have played Buckaroo like a sad postgraduate student in Reading or similar.

Instead I admired the world map, marked up with all the places where Pubmeister had watched non-league matches.

I’d timed my Hull ticking perfectly for the next stage of my evening, and still had time to get casually lost and wait for people to dawdle past The Empress.

And just enough time at the station to admire a Cambridge and Hull legend.