After Spoons on the Mall, I made a critical mistake.
“Shall we walk along Embankment to the Tower, my dear* ?”
Mrs RM seemed enthusiastic, but I’d forgotten the law of “inappropriate footwear“, which dictates that the person you’re walking with will never be wearing the right shoes.
Even an excellent tea in the Hare & Tortoise couldn’t change the tortoise into the hare.
So at St Pauls Mrs RM caught the tube to the Travelodge at the Tower, leaving me to the hard yards of visiting pubs.
Said it before, there is no better place in the world to wander aimlessly than the City of London between 19:32 and 19:58, as the folk on Project Calypso have headed north but the old pubs down alleyways are still pleasantly buzzing.
It’s a good job I hadn’t asked Mrs RM to climb the monument with me; then I’d have been in trouble.
Mrs RM had deserted me, but I had the next best thing. Having seen that the legends that are the Tand and E were down for the night in their luxury London pad (presumably remodelled to look like a Rochdale Sam Smiths pub), I’d asked if they fancied a quick pint. They never seem to need much convincing.
If only I could find my way to the Gherkin where a Craft Beer Co place was hiding.
Somewhere here,
I got lost in Leadenhall Market a bit too. But that’s a delight.
And then I stumbled on it.
This is the only Craft Beer Co. place I haven’t been to so it must be a cert for a future GBG entry, surely ?
To be honest, I couldn’t tell them apart if you blindfolded me and dropped me in Maidenhead Swimming Pool.
But the staff were brilliant, although the barman did ask me what sort of I beer I liked when I asked what I should have. Never ask me that.
Not enough custom for the cask, if you ask me, but the Electric Pale was cool and fruity and I’ll score it NBSS 3 when I find my WhatPub password.
The lovely Tand and his boss turned up, and decided to sit on the high table so they could see what was going on, rather than the low table in the corner.
As always, great company and I think we dissected Huntingdon. Very messy.
Opinions on the beers were mixed, but the mirrors are winners.
Almost as good as the century-old sanitation.
*Not in the expensive sense.
retiredmartin 
“Used to be a good Young’s pub here once” – the Lamb which I remember in the 1970s as a free house selling Youngs. Now Nigel Farage gets in there occasionally..
There’s a factory making reproduction century-old sanitation on an industrial state in, er, I forget where.
Their work can be found in Fullers’s Parcel Yard.
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The Elf In Garage seems to get everywhere, Paul.
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Wish someone would do a UK Pad Thai ticking blog…
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Sir Nigel is off the beer at the moment as he plans his runaway Euro elections success.
Blokes whose diet consists of Miners’ Benedict and takeaway Chinese should take note.
Mind you,I’m a fine one to talk as I contemplate the half dozen pints of cream stout awaiting me this tea time.
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Have I missed something ?
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Some would say that we could all safely leave missing things to Jeremy Corbyn – I couldn’t possibly comment, Prof.
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Getting back on topic, I touched on that part of London on Thursday, in fact I walked past the Monument and could have taken an identical photo to your own.
I was in the City on company business, so left the beer until later in the day – full post to follow.
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It was a good visit to a very pubby Craft outlet. They aren’t always, though like you, I think the mirrors were a surprisingly good bonus.
I’m fond of that part of London and it was good to realise Ican walk to Craft from Tandleman Towers South in less than 15 minutes.
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It’s a wonderful part of the world to explore, and you can be in Wapping in 20 minutes.
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In London I notice that even in the specialist beer places most people aren’t drinking it; they’re in there because it’s the nearest boozer to the office and they like the atmosphere. Sit in the Holborn Whippet – say – for an hour and you’ll see more white wine and standard lager drunk than any cask or craft.
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Exactly, AP. Was in a couple of cask and craft focused places in the Potteries yesterday, both new in the GBG, both with sales of Pravha far outstripping cask and keg, with bottles of wine second.
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And in ‘ordinary pubs’ I’m often the only one on cask beer, everyone else on smoothflow or lager.
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theres a new one opening in Hammersmith this week 🙂 Ive generally found most of Craft Beer co’s Ive visited (still got Limehouse & Old street to do)have been ok for cask, as craft pubs go, actually its probably only the Gherkin one thats a bit more craft/lager focussed because yeah its like most pubs in that area aimed at the city trade, which is why its only open weekdays & not the weekend, there are still plenty of pubs in that area that do decent cask though its just you have to get lost around there just to find them, clearly passing trade is not something they rely on.
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Is that light attached to your head in the Bass picture?? Great looking pub and nice to see a fellow blogger out on the sauce with you!
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That light is indeed attached to my head. It’s so I could B navigate my way through London’s Smog.
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A wise move….
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