Two backstreet boozers to start, both with a decent smattering of custom by 2019 standards, then onto the “Lunch Stop” aka “Anywhere But Spoons“.
The rest of our group doubted my navigational skills as I wove them past dustbins and through Balti kitchens and graveyards on the way to the Merchant’s.
If I’d been asked to give these Rugby GBG pubs a mark before our trip they’d have all been in the 7-7.5 range, where 10 is Staggs and 1 is the Maidenhead Conservative Club.
I reckon they all went up a notch on our crawl, the Merchant’s Inn a real beneficiary of the return visit. I remember this opening as the first real specialist ale house in the early 2000s, but I’d forgotten the “tat“, as Mrs RM would have it.
As always, see Mudgie and BeerLeeds for the truth; I was enjoying the banter about Bielsa and Bedworth so much I hardly took any notes. But the Merchant’s is incredibly photogenic.
I got my half of NBSS 3.5 Oakham (as ubiquitous as Doom Bar these days), ordered a rugby-themed burger, and left the Famous Five (Mudgies, Coldwell and Pete) who seemed to want to actually read the menu before deciding on lunch.
Despite my love of Bass I’m not quite as obsessed with breweriana as you might think, but the Merchants is right up there with the Cambridge Blue.
A stunning display across a rambling pub neatly divided into four or five different drinking areas.
I know, if this was a micro I’d be calling “cliché”. There you go.
The Merchant’s had been quite busy with local lunch trade, but by 2pm was thinning out a bit. Still enough drinking trade to keep it honest, all jollied along by the ’96 soundtrack (“Common People”, “Wonderwall”) that defines Rugby.
All quite classy, I thought, with particularly cheery service and one of the best pub lunches I’d had since Toad in the Hole on Tuesday.
Pub upgraded from a 7 to an 8, a result confirmed by the jokes in the Gents.
Mrs Beer Leeds refused to tell us what was on the Ladies wall.
retiredmartin 
A proper modern public house providing a little of something for everyone (or in terms of cask selection quite a lot), all underlined with the recurring theme of Quality. If I had a pub I would like it to be something like this, bearing in mind the point of having a pub is to make money and not to run some sort of museum or shrine to what has gone before.
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Yes, the point of having a pub is to make money and the Merchants rightly does so by NOT doing things ‘on the cheap’ or cutting corners.
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That’s really well put. I thought they’d invested well in all areas, including their staff.
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Exactly. Yet the meals were still, I thought, excellent value and top quality. A very well run premises I thought.
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So Maidenhead Conservative Club on the day Theresa draws the annual raffle would be a -10?
That much breweriana makes it look like one of the more extreme Belgian beer cafes.
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It does indeed look very Belgian. The unpronounceable one I wrote about in central Brussels?
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Best version I’ve seen like that is actually in Arnhem – https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g188568-d8511819-Reviews-Cafe_t_Moortgat-Arnhem_Gelderland_Province.html
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That looks brilliant. Beer tasting at 8am according to the website, too.
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And just a quick train trip to Nijmegen and one of the best estate pubs I’ve ever seen – http://cafejos.nl/sfeerimpressie/fotoalbums/
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Oh, and the Maidenhead obsession has little to do with Saint Theresa. It’s just a dump of a town.
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Nothing political, just the thought of her failing to make a public speech. Alternative useless politicians are most definitely available.
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I love all that stuff on the walls -lots to look at -reminds me of pub in Stamford whos name escapes me at the moment (part of a small chain in the area -i’m sure you will know ! )
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Tobie Norris, part of the Knead chain. Nice pub.
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Ah yes, Pauline & Mark. It was actually their pub in Newark I was trying to recall.
https://retiredmartin.com/2016/12/14/ancient-modern-in-newark/
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Thank you -we have visited Stamford a couple of times -I loved the Tobie Norris !
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Great pizza too 😀
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I don’t usually read the comments so apologies if this has already been discussed:
Many of the photos in your blog have taken on a rather unnatural HDR look, with over-saturated colours. Any accounting for this? The photos are otherwise very good but this is a distraction.
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Hi David. Thanks for reading.
Before I upload the photos I try a filter, often Palma, to see if they aid definition. I’m no photographer though. I thought the extra definition helped a bit, but I’ll take feedback from all.
Tempted to do a comparison of Natural/Auto/Palma and see what you make of the difference in an upcoming post.
NB other people’s comments are often the best bit!
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Just looking back at the post you commented on, I recall the Merchant’s in Rugby had particularly strong lighting, which didn’t help 😉
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