Everyone on the radio today sounds so grumpy, don’t they. What they all need is an evening out with BRAPA and a morning exploring York.
No beer, but a chance to explore our 8th best pub town* without the crowds is a joy, and you get to see details like the pub cat climbing the Black Swan.
I know you hang on my every breakfast recommendation, so this is the café at Supersonic Fitness on The Stonebow (not making this up).
“You alright mate” said the bloke on reception as I stormed past the gym entrance.
“err, yes, just after breakfast” I said, too defensively, fearing you had to do 100 press-ups before being allowed a fry-up.
“Just asking if you’re alright mate” said the bloke, cheerily. More of that please.
With a veggie on sourdough spring in my step I admired the classics.
No trip to York is complete without a bit of Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma (still illegal in Goole).
The market meets all your needs,
except the wizarding supplies, which are all along the Shambles.
Frankly, that revitalised Sam Smiths looks better every time I walk past.
Some folk looked even worse than I felt that morning.
*OK, 7th
retiredmartin 
I had one of the most memorably bad pub meals ever in the Brigadier Gerard. It was billed as a chicken burger but in fact turned out to be an inedible lump of grey gristle 😦
Nice pub apart from that, though 😀
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One man’s lump of grey gristle is another man’s authentic sixteenth century pub grub.
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When I were a lad we’d spend six days looking forward to Sunday and a bite from an inedible lump of grey gristle
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Seriously though I very much doubt if your food in the Brigadier Gerard could have been any worse than what was sold to me as a Chicken Burger in the Angel, Manchester at the beginning of January.
Or maybe they’re just no good at doing chicken burgers up north and if I venture beyond Crewe or Stoke I should stick with black pudding or tripe.
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Oh no, let’s not go back to the 16th century, the Ugly Duchess might rock up.
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Is she Humphrey’s mum?
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A bite ?
Sheer bloody luxury.
All we got was a lick each.
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I think that Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate was invented for the tourists just like Betty’s and Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.
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easy for you say……..
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Hard to think of a more pleasant tourist town than York.
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Yes, York is quite a pleasant tourist town but it could with being made a bit more authentic, like in the Shambles getting rid of all those outlets for tat and bringing back proper butchers’ shops with slaughterhouses at the back of the premises,
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They’re all in that Jorvic museum.
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I thought that some people objected to those in Luton and in Bradford, Paul?
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Etu,
Well, a bit of controversy is publicity that’s sure to get more tourists crowding in.
And something seen free in the street is better value than paying £12.50 to see it in a museum – and that reminds me of lager being given away in the centre of Leeds..
I actually thought that the early morning Smithfield pubs with bumaree customers dressed in their extremely blood-stained smocks and swearing like troopers with Tourette’s was, as they say, one of London’s best kept secrets. The breakfasts were top notch and the beer not bad.
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I noticed the “Cask Marque badge does it no favours” comment and perhaps one or two similar comments in earlier posts. Are you not a fan of what they do? Just curious– I really don’t know so much about them, one way or the other.
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Cask Marque, very simply, check cellars and beers for quality standards, and seem to focus on coolness of beers. It’s a voluntary inspiration system that pubs pay for.
If pubs take more care because of visits, it’s fine with me.
I just like pub walls free of stuff 😉
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I see– it’s the badge itself that can be a bit of a detraction from a pub’s exterior; becomes an ad for Cask Marque as much as a symbol of quality, I imagine.
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I just want the pub sign protruding and a little bit of paper saying “No BRAPAs” on the door. And opening times.
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It’s a voluntary inspiration system that pubs pay for except where a whole chain is involved – which is why we’ll never get a duff pint in one of Tim’s venues !
I’ve not known pubs take more care because of visits. Unprepared for an early-in-the-day visit a pub two miles from me served warm beer, the inspector suggested some was pulled through which the lessee did and hey presto the pub got the accreditation it or Punch paid for.
I agree about “walls free of stuff”. There’s nothing worse than an internal one covered in pumpclips, certificates and reproduction mirrors.
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“so this is the café at Supersonic Fitness on The Stonebow”
Two eggs, over easy,and a piece of bread to mop up the yolk does it for me. 🙂
“fearing you had to do 100 press-ups before being allowed a fry-up”
As long as elbow bending counts as press-ups, no worries there. 😉
“Why doesn’t it open at 10 ?”
Good point.
“Get with the times, Blue Bell”
Indeed. What did they use before 1798… goats?
“Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma”
That sounds a bit… incestuous.
“The market meets all your needs,”
As long as all of your needs are no more than hats and handbags?
“except the wizarding supplies, which are all along the Shambles.”
Especially post Harry Potter.
“Wizard”
I think you mean ‘magician’ if you mean the man pulling the Houdini box.
“Some folk looked even worse than I felt that morning.”
Everyone looks like that before they’ve had a coffee to transform.*
* – or tea for some of you folk over there
Cheers
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