While I’d been slogging my way up to the Highlands and round the Moray coast towards Aberdeen, Mrs RM had taking the easy option of a Logan Air flight from Southend. I think you should demand she blogs about Southend, you know.
She’ll have had this view as the plane bumbled towards Trump Airport in Dyce, without the labels of course.
She beat me into the city centre by about 6 hours, setting about fixing IT systems at the University while I did the hard yards of revisiting some Aberdeen classics I missed out last time.
Let’s start at The Grill, to see how this year’s change of ownership has treated it.
Older readers Paul will remember the fuss when ladies stormed it in 1973.
A mere 25 years later they introduced ladies toilets.
Things have changed since those unenlightened days.
4pm on Friday. The Golden Hour. It was magic.
A small, bustling place with seating round all the walls, all taken bar the space by the door where I dumped my backpack and headed for the bar.
I hadn’t been for a decade. It hadn’t exactly gone craft but there was Punk and cocktails alongside the Tennents that still dominates, and that seemed to have helped create a more mixed crowd than I remember.
My corner spot lacked a table, so I had to use the window ledge for my pint of Jarl, which was cool and fruity, and far better than I was expecting (NBSS 3.5+).
I was feeling jealous of the whisky chasers, mind.
Husbands and wives met up and kissed. Folk came and went, but some were there for the duration.
Simplicity itself, it was just magic. I’d compare it to the Laurieston, but I’m not that lazy (I am).
Just like dusk setting on Aberdeen as I left.
*Joke, Woke Si
retiredmartin 
Wow they really take good care of the wooden surfaces in that place, don’t they?
Lots of great photos in this one. I especially loved the ‘Pub life’ one; I’m only a few years away from reading a newspaper that way, I have little doubt!
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Yes, it’s gorgeous in its simplicity, isn’t it.
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“I think you should demand she blogs about Southend, you know.”
Only if she blogs less prolifically than you do.*
* – but then, that would be true of most anyone, wouldn’t it? 🙂
(once again I get hellishly busy – thanks to the wife – and have to leap frog over god knows how many of your posts)**
** – but missing the ‘narnia’ one was a no-brainer. 🙂
“A mere 25 years later they introduced ladies toilets.”
And the line-up for the loos is probably just as bad as back then.
“Women ! Cocktails ! Punk IPA !What’s going on ?*”
You said it yourself… ladies toilets!
“I was feeling jealous of the whisky chasers, mind.”
G’wan. You’re taking the mickey aren’t ya?
“Pub life”
At my age, I luxuriate in the fact that I can now take my glasses off to read small print. ***
*** – my ophthalmologist told me that would be the case way back when I got my first pair of glasses at the age of 13
“*Joke, Woke Si”
Wait… Si is woke?
Cheers
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Yes I have to take my glasses off to read, oddly.
Si is now the King of Woke, keep up. Hasn’t used “babe” in a post for 3 weeks.
Simon’s post where he has the barley wine is the one not to miss.
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Oh, aye. That’s where I’d like to be. The Grill – one of my favourites, and certainly my favourite in Aberdeen.
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Not a ‘top 100’ pub? Probably in my top 10. Like you said, wonderful simplicity.
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I tagged it as Top100 but I wanted to use that title Leon 😉
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Love the Grill, definitely in the Top Ten.
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Great pics. Not been there in decades and makes me to revisit. Jarl is a gorgeous beer when you get it fresh.
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