17th January 2020
“Finally, somewhere posh” says reader Pashmina Pauline.
Yes, it’s St Ives, the Falmouth of the west.
£31.59 for B&B at Treloyhan Manor on a Friday night. And I still complained about breaking my £30 budget.
Best views of the trip on the walk from Carbis Bay.
Last time here you could hardly move. Now I had it all to myself.
Particularly in the pubs.
You don’t forget a name like Kettle’n’Wink Bar, do you ?
Well, actually you do, it’s just when I came here before it was listed as the Western Hotel, the sort of thing that drives tickers crazy.
Still, a pleasingly basic hotel bar. Perhaps a bit too authentically basic.
The mark of a good pub is that you can join in a random conversation without being blanked.
“You know that Dali ? Did he die in a crazy way or was that Warhol ?”
You’ll be amazed what I know about Dali and his DNA.
The Tribute was a cool, rich NBSS 3+, but it was the American TV, subtitled for the Cornish, that clinched it.
Tea time. Research shows that 97.2% of visitors to St Ives have a pasty, but you’ll be unsurprised to read I had beetroot houmous salad from the Vegan takeaway.
The guy who runs it is a legend, and it’s worth visiting for the models on the sushi stand.
So, the micro. Easier to get out of Truro Escape Room than find the Pilchard.
A cosy cave-like bar, the sort that Castletown does well, and a cheery barman who led me to the Treens, which was as good as MJC said.
“Enjoy it, man”
I did.
But I’m claustrophobic, and finished the evening in the newish Spoons, which had a rare Innis & Gunn on draught.
And that cookie dough pudding that undid all the good work with the beetroot.
Hey-ho.
retiredmartin 
You have to love “Like Pubs Used to Be”. Not the current day mantra.
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It was cosy and chatty, but the pubs I used to know were rather more spacious 🤔
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I remember the Union being the only St ives pub with real ale ( Courage on gravity ) forty-five years ago but when I looked in sixteen months ago it was unrecognisable, knocked through into one big room and not at all “like pubs used to be”
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More like what West Londoners expect them to be now…
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I expect that pudding was fully earned, by way of a good bit of walking!
So would you say the Pilchard Press was as “like pubs used to be” as they claim? In a funny way their tag line seems to imply that a pub that actually feels like a pub has now become an endangered species…
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I wouldn’t say St Ives is posh ! We usually visit once a year so know it quite well -last time we went to Pilchard press we were joined by the local “character/drunk ” so only stayed for one drink -we have found frequently that there is not a seat to be had so we leave -I refuse to stand -have to say it is not my favourite drinking establishment but I have to humour mr S
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Pauline,
Might the “Mr S” you “have to humour” be the Bill who’s a very wealthy man after selling out to Molson Coors nine years ago ?
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Great pudding… beetroot is the food of Beelzebub
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