Tuesday night in Eccles, sadly arriving back from Gullivers too late for the Lamb.
As before, I can recommend the Milton Hotel (£32) which towers above the Eccles Job Centre. Clean, decent WiFi, exciting craft selection, breakfast in the Spoons with the 9am Smooth drinkers.
Mrs RM had stayed down in London “doing IT” so I decided to make a week of it.
On a whim I thought I’d finish Glasgow GBG.
Ooh look, it’s Tebay Services pies.
Tebay is regarded as the Crown Jewel of motorway services, which is a bit like being regarded as the best pub in Maidenhead.
In front of me, a guy was buying (I kid you not) 20 bottles of beer in the Farm Shop. Who are these pubkillers who drink at home ?
I changed my mind about my pie choice 3 times while waiting for him before settling on game, which is presumably a mix of hedgehog and tourist. Washed down with an excellent filter coffee, it was the highpoint of the day.
Oh, the view from the café to the lakes wasn’t bad either.
Two hours later, saving Ecclefechan for the return, I parked up at the redoubtable Kings Park Hotel in Rutherglen.
By “redoubtable” I mean cheap.
£25.52 is about right for an old, poky room in the unglamorous suburbs of Glasgow, but it’s an ideal base to use the trains to explore Glasgow’s unlimited supply of Spoons.
Starting in East Kilbride.
I’d always associated East Kilbride with this lot;
(The Reid brother relocated to Fulham after the release of Psychocandy; an attempt to twin the towns never took off).
But Wiki suggests the town has also produced the varied joys of Lorraine Kelly, Alex Ferguson and Aztec Camera, which sounds like a supergroup waiting to happen.
It may always be raining in Glasgow according to Nick Abbot on LBC, but I arrived on one of the two dry days mandated by the SNP, and had a dry approach to the shopping centre that basically is the town. It alone justified my journey from the South.
Reading Wiki now, I’m astonished to find it’s the 6th largest Scottish settlement, 75,120 souls, most of whom were actually in the indoor shopping centre from hell.
It’s quite a smart centre to be honest, but completely unfathomable. If lost, look for the toy grabber.
In the Hay Stook, I had to join a queue of folk clutching menus.
Then a young chap barged past us and went straight to the bar.
“Is there a queue here” I asked the Canada hat man.
” ******* supposed to be. ****” he said, seething.
Then something caught my eye.
Yes ! A two tier system that prioritises drinkers ! Take that !
The chap in front even had a pint of cask. In Scotland.
It was all going well, until I drunk it. Never trust an English rugby themed beer, folks.
Or a Spoons that runs out of beans.
Been there twice-vinegar both times. Ditto places ranging from Sheerness to Streatham. Notice there is a letter in What’s Brewing from someone in Hampshire saying he has never had a bad pint in a Spoons. He must be lucky or sticks to a good local one. Of the last twenty I have had 50% have been good and 25% undrinkable. Several non GBG ones included in the latter, and mostly GBG ones in the good half.
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But all Spoons must sell wonderful cask; that’s why they all get Cask Marque the moment they open….
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That’s the thing isn’t it – they might all serve it to Cask Marque temperatures but CM can’t tell them when to take a beer off sale.
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Just realised that Martin isn’t exactly clear here as to whether this was a badly kept beer, or a decently kept drop of a Donnington clone.
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Thinking of forming a Donnington support group.
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Do you mean as in sending a team of crack brewers round to help them? Or mental health support for their regulars?
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Years ago I had a gorgeous beer from they that has never come close to being matched from subsequent tastings. Shame.
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How many pints had you already had that day?
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Can one person be a group?
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My head is spinning!
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Never having had the delights of partaking in the Donny delights, part of me suspects that it’s actually the Nectar of the Gods and you are really trying to save it all for yourselves….
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Yes. Yes, that’s it Scott.
Why don’t you come down this afternoon and drink it yourself?
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If you stuck to the Spoons in Farnborough you’d be fine. Earlier this year I’d say the majority of spoons beer was below GBG standard (NBSS 3), but things have picked up over Autumn.
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Probably because the ones you’ve done in the Autumn have been new GBG entries, which I have found generally ok too.
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Yes that’s the case. #Truth
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Hadn’t realised that you could get honey from ducks before. Or is that a term of endearment to people buying a honey/marmalade pie?
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Duck honey ? Chesterfield swears by it.
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I’m in Chesvegas tonight. Derby Tupping, non-league and duck honey on my chips. We know how to live.
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I love the bean sign -interested in how anyone can possibly be inconvenienced by lack of Heinz beans ! I have to put up with nonsense signs like this this where I work (we frequently have signs saying “Please bare with us while this is fixed ” & as the girl who Googled the spelling insisted the spelling was correct, ,the sign stayed Sadly no one stripped off
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It’s a good job signs aren’t followed literally, Pauline 😱
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