COTTAGE-INN

My third (count them) GBG pub in Llandeilo, or Pentrefelin if you place Guide entries where they actually are, rather than you’d like them to be.

The Cottage is very pink, in that faded Welsh style

Welsh drovers pubs only generally exist for one of two purposes.

Either to provide a weekly difficult choice for gentlefolk between fish and chips and lamb chops. Or to provide future material for Mudgie’s acclaimed “Closed Pubs” blog.

I admire any pub that’s open all day for food and drink, but as in Trapp I felt very isolated myself.

Quaint seating
Whither the food trade?

The service was charming, the plates on the wall always an encouraging sign, and there were just two local beers.

A few drinkers gave it a community atmosphere you’d never find in a Brunning and Price.

More local stuff

One of the best enclosed pub gardens I’ve seen, not far from the National Botanic Gardens.

Which was just as well, as the Mumbles Mile was served in a Carling glass that was warm to the touch, and the NBSS 1 I gave it was given grudgingly.

Never min “Spot the ball“. Let’s play “Spot the lucky pot plant “.

Does it get any better?

Yes.

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Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

31 thoughts on “COTTAGE-INN”

    1. I really wonder why a lot of pubs bother with cask. I suppose if no-one complains and some folk in Clitheroe are grateful to get cheap week-old beer there’s no great write-off, but I reckon Marston have the right idea.

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      1. I think a lot of outside visitors, not just CAMRA members and GBG readers, still expect to see a handpump on the bar. An all-keg line-up immediately suggests “this is a pub for local people, there’s nothing for you here.” Also it gets you listed in various guides.

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  2. Do you think it would be a different story in the summer months when there is some caravan/camping/cottage tourist trade?

    To be fair you order a pint of cask in many rural pubs at your peril these days. Food can’t be fresh neither.

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      1. Lot of seasonal businesses take the lions share of their turnover in school holidays. Places like these would be better putting a key-keg of a decent craft style session beer on IMO. It’s all about Quality.

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      3. The locals would probably be happy with keg Worthington Smooth. And how many tourists would even know what a key-keg was?

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      5. But non-reusable KeyKegs add about £1 to each pint and I doubt if customers of pubs like this would pay the extra

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      2. And that’s the problem. Why go through that and start an altercation for a transaction under £2. Not worth it.

        I actually saw the Southworths told “its supposed to taste like that” in Kent recently when they took back vinegar.

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  4. “rather than you’d like them to be.”

    Where I’d like a few of them to be is within walking distance of my bloody home.

    “in that faded Welsh style”

    Not from too much sunshine surely.

    “a weekly difficult chouce for gentlefolk”

    Just the word ‘chouce’ is difficult for me!

    “Quaint seating”

    From the sign on the wall I see the Welsh are very frugal where vowels are concerned.

    “Whither the food trade?”

    Hmm. That’s a good point, akin to ‘too many beers’. How does one prepare for possibly 40 diners and deal with the leftover food if only 4 show up?

    “One of the best enclosed pub gardens I’ve seen, not far from the National Botanic Gardens.”

    They probably nick their flowers from there. 🙂

    “Let’s play “Spot the lucky pot plant “.”

    The one that’s greener? (or maybe, yellower?) 😉

    Cheers

    PS – “Never min “Spot the ball“”

    Just because the Welsh are frugal with vowels doesn’t mean you have to balance that by being frugal with consonants.

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  5. But none of us would have had much idea how bad it can get had it not been in the so called Good Beer Guide causing you to go there and tell us all about it.
    But it’s not just rural Wales. In a pub near me two hours ago I thought “that’s odd” and it was two other blokes drinking the cask beer.
    Quite depressing.

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    1. I think the best places have got better, and the marginal places worse.

      The beer in those Manchester pubs on 2 January (i missed the weak one) was uniformly excellent, and I enjoyed Rugby a lot too, so I think there’s hope.

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      2. You seem to find good beer and pubs most places you go, Paul.

        At this very moment Mrs RM is drinking a cool and tasty pint of Five Points in the Lexington on Pentonville Rd, proving London isn’t completely beyond hope.

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      3. Well, yes, all but one of my pints in London last weekend was in good condition.
        And there’s probably nothing wrong with about two-thirds of the beer I drink.
        Someone as curmudgeonly as me tends to just remember the bad pints.

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      4. Indeed. I actually think London has got better recently, though of course I wouldn’t tell them that.

        People who read this tend to remember the drain pours more than the good stuff. No-one remembers when Laurel and Hardy actually got that piano up the stairs, do they?

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      5. Cask certainly still does sell well in some pubs.
        Nearly everyone was on the Holdens yesterday in Codsall Station which was so full that we moved on to the Swan in Brewood for a comfortable seat and that wasn’t far off full of cask drinkers.
        Then it was back to our nearest pub and a curry for me and onion bhaji for Mrs TSM.

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