retiredmartin

I was umming and ahhing about leading this piece with a picture of bucolic Boston or an actual sausage.

Here’s that sausage, encased with onion in a proper pastry filling.

But we have a vegan in our house at the moment and I don’t want to upset her.

She wouldn’t cope well in Boston, whose venerable Polish residents have imbued the town with some lovely restaurants that serve huge plates of meat.

This is the house special Mrs RM had when we visited Swojskie Jadloe in 2015

If this was a town of equivalent size in Poland (say, Mikolow) you’d get craft beer bars all over the place.

Boston resists the craft surge enveloping the A16, and even gets a Bateman pub back in the Guide this year. Not this one, though.

I recommend the 15 minutes stroll into town along London Road and the southern High Street.

Not only for the culinary attractions.

but for plenty of reminders of history, for those that like history.

The pubs look a bit tired and a fair few aren’t even open at lunchtime , which would have been unthinkable in 2007.

Also closing early was the market, which sadly meant I couldn’t get Mrs RM and my mum a bunch of dahlias at a third the price of Tescos.

So Church Keys Wine Bar & Restaurant it was, right next to the big church. Apparently they used to keep the keys to the pub cellar at the top of the Stump, hence the name.

Half-timber frontage apart, it’s very plain, more hotel bar than pub.

“She’s just in the cellar” says one of two locals at the bar, explaining the lack of service.

For the second time this week, one beer is plenty.

“Mr Wendel” takes me back to the summer of 1993 when I started my travelling. I don’t think I’ve heard it since.

The Black Sheep is near £4 a pint, but frankly it’s worth it. Cool, rich, lasting. NBSS 3.5.

I will bet that if York or Cambridge CAMRA visited Boston they would never pick Cross Keys for the GBG.

So I applaud Fenland branch for choosing beer quality over quantity.

And ignoring the soft furnishings.