Today’s cover stars are Barb and Richard from Chicago, where pizza was invented in 1492 and it’s even scarier than on “The Wire”.
Barb and Dick, and Dave and Joan, were finishing their latest attempt to save UK cask by drinking it.
Mrs RM and I, along with special guest Curry Charles, met them at Hammersmith Station for some London Pride in the Dove.
Once we’d worked out the way to the Thames from the train. Hammersmith is the “new” New Street of the South.
Everyone is going to the Dove these days. BRAPA, Newbury Tim, Pashminas Pauline, the Southworths and Sir Quinno.
Seeing the throng outside the Blue Anchor, I reckoned our chances of nabbing 7 seats in the Dove on a Summer Saturday as high as 0.7%.
But I didn’t marry Mrs RM for her driving skills. No, it was the sheer nerve that claims she’s the Oriana on the the reserved sign that impressed me. She may have said Ariana actually to try and boost her celebrity claims.
So we had a couple of hours till Suzanne, either of Human League or Leonard Cohen fame, showed up.
Long enough for a pint of Pride and two ESBs each. We’ll let Barb off, she’s still in training.
Dave and Joan drank at Stafford Mudge pace in their efforts to save cask.
Not that the Dove needs a lot of help, though I reckon Peroni still outsells Pride by a margin.
A great time was had comparing road trips and deciphering Dick’s famous notes.
Being completely honest, the pub beats the beer. I reckon the Pride is the right side of OK, and the ESB slips down a bit too easily for the strength.
But I cant fault the staff, or the views, or the company.
And that’s what really matters.
retiredmartin 
Great pub, we had a great table, great beer and, of course, great company. I am glad we were able to finally get there. We hope to go back.
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Do I take it from Martin’s comments that Dave was drinking at a rate of knots?
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“where pizza was invented in 1492 ”
Only because Columbus brought some with him. 🙂
“Everyone is going to the Dove these days. BRAPA, Newbury Tim, Pashminas Pauline, the Southworths and Sir Quinno.”
Is that all of them in the photo below?
“So we had a couple of hours till Suzanne”
It looks like 8uzanne to me.
“or Leonard Cohen fame, showed up.”
Good thing it wasn’t that other Canadian, Neil Young, who sang down ‘by’ the river (where he shot his baby).
“Errant non-cask drinker outed”
There’s a lot of that on the blogs lately.*
* – Big Bog Brewery gin ring a bell? 🙂
“though I reckon Peroni still outsells Pride by a margin.”
(sigh)
“Orange + vodka”
As opposed to the time they mixed it up and had vodka and orange in the Mawstons Arms? 😉
“and the ESB slips down a bit too easily for the strength.”
That can indeed be deadly.
“And that’s what really matters.”
Absolutely.
Cheers
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The Dove is the only pub in London to rival the Royal Oak for me. Amazing place.
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“the Pride is the right side of OK” must be a polite way of suggesting that the Pride wasn’t really drinking well but just seventeen days ago on the Beer and Pubs Forum I commented that “I wouldn’t have recognised my beer in Euston’s new Signal Box and the old Viaduct Tavern as London Pride as it was thinner, sharper and lighter coloured than I’ve always known it and I can’t understand how such a well-known beer has apparently changed so significantly”.
That’s a lovely suspension bridge constructed in the 1820s for £80,000 – a bargain compared to Boris’s non-existent Garden Bridge that’s cost at least £43,000,000.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/17/absurd-vanity-project-for-our-age-boris-johnson-garden-bridge
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I’m pleased to report that the Pride was “drinking well” at the Dove, when in I called in during the first week in May. Perhaps I just struck lucky, but the combination of excellent beer, and the surroundings of this lovely old historic inn, made for a good way to end my business trip to the capital.
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Paul,
Yours was during the first week in May but mine was on the last day of May and I think Martin’s Pride was just about the same time as me. I don’t know if it was a bad batch towards the end of May or if the recipe might have changed.
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I know I’m wrong (and it feels like sacrilege to be arguing with either Paul) but I never bought the duff batch/recipe changed/not what it was explanation for changes in how we perceive cask quality.
I always assume it’s down to basic pub hygiene, how long they let it mature in the cellar before serving, and how quickly it sells once tapped.
The Pride I have in London these days always seens “fine” without sparkling, NBSS 3 rather than 3.5.
The Southworths can probably comment better than me, as Fullers is a bellwether pint.
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Martin,
If a pint’s not right I first think it might be me having an off day, and I know that’s what it is if every one of several pints doesn’t seem right as happens very occasionally.
However I can’t think of an explanation other than it was a bad batch or if the recipe might have changed given that I wouldn’t have recognised it as London Pride, a beer I’ve drunk for 45 years, in BOTH pubs, it was the same in BOTH pubs and the other beers I drank in the other five London pubs that day were all perfectly fine except the Adnams in the last one which was past its best.
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Johnson might be loathed in our household for many reasons (not bothering to read his briefs the primary one) but I liked the idea of the garden bridge, vanity or not. Mind, I support HS2, particularly if great swathes if Bucks get wiped out as a byproduct.
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And HS2 was important in getting rid of far too many beers on at the Bree Louise.
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We went in Blue Anchor too -after 2 on a Thursday afternoon,it was very quiet -again a round in excess of £10 (beer plus wine ) Twickers & Richmond just the same.We never add up how much we have” pissed up against the wall ” though -life is too short !
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That’s the attitude Pauline!
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It doesn’t look as good as the Proper Blue Anchor in Helston.
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Mmmmm … been in all them. All a bit meh, okay Yah? Nice walk along the riverside path though. Better off in the Spoons up on King Street #proper people. The ‘pub with two names’ place at the side of the Asahi Griffin brewery is the best place for Fullers and is full of brewery workers coming off the early shift at 2pm.
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Best Pride in London is at the Anchor & Hope, on the River Lea in Clapton. Get there before Fullers ditch it.
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It was good there, probably 15 years ago 👍
I’ve made a note to revisit. Decent walks.
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I thought “the early shift” was the only shift in a proper brewery.
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No, I believe these big mega-breweries in the midlands brew 24/7 these days.
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Richard,
I think you are confusing the brewery workers with the yeast which indeed never takes a break.
At the Hull Brewery in 1974 I worked from 7am to 4pm with a hour for lunch. Head Brewer Peter Austin and a few others might have been in earlier but I don’t recall anyone staying later.
I doubt if other proper long established breweries, such as Fullers and Banks’s, are much different forty-five years later.
I have fond memories of that job and of an even earlier as a postman which is more than can be said of my ‘career’ for thirty years in between on double the pay.
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