My readers are a cantankerous bunch, always up for a pointless argument.
“Is Newport Gwent even the best pubby Newport ?” they ask.
Hmmm.
Let’s see the competing claims, starting with;
A County town, but then so is Bedford, which also seems to have a bus station as its redeeming feature.
It had 3 GBG entries, still does, but I didn’t warm to it.
Some nice architectural touches in the centre, though frankly no more than you’d find in Sheerness. And Sheerness has a beach.
3 pubs in the Guide; Spoons, micro, old fashioned gastro.
The Spoons is the one with the wonky Doom Bar pump.
It didn’t matter, the local beer (I know, I know) was very good a year ago.
What can this Spoons possibly have been?
This is the place where women waste away hours with Prosecco while red-faced East London escapees fail to remember George Cohen as the 11th member of the ’66 team.
I thought it an above average Spoons, and the Newport Ale House an above average micro.
Proper seating, pewter tankards, Burton beer (not that one. Or that one),
and a singing Landlord.
RADIO…………………………… LANDLORD
“I’m still standing…” “Yeah, yeah, yeah”
“I gotta New Sensation...” “New Sensation”
I didn’t think I’d like the Bargeman’s Rest either.
All day food, nautical tat, that Goddard’s beer that normally tastes like it was brewed in your bath.
But the barmaid called everyone “My love“, folk came to drink, the music made Jim Reeves sound punk, and the Fuggle-dee-dum was decent.
Nothing to trouble my Top 100, or my Bottom 100 (now there’s an idea) but as threesomes go not bad.
But as towns go you still feel like you’re in 1990 Hitchin, which frankly is 2020 Hitchin.
What other Newport’s have we got?
Well you’ve got the delights of Newport on Tay, which must be a reason for a future revisit of Fife?
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Scott,
Eighteen months ago I realised that the Newport in Newport on Tay does accommodation but thought ‘tay much fun walking a mile over the bridge each morning for the AGM in Dundee so stayed in the Premier Inn which also had the advantage of being much nearer the wonderful Speedwell Bar.
A year later and I’m at home rather than just starting on the final lunchtime of York pubs.
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Grief is it only a year since all that wonderful beer in great Edinburgh pubs (and dreadful beer in Fife) ?
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“I’m pleased to see that confirmation bias means exactly what I’d expect it to mean”, as someone wrote recently.
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Very good.
Did you write that? Expect nothing less of you.
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Sadly not.
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Apparently the locals refer to the short stretch of dual carriageway just to the north of the town centre as “the motorway” 😉
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And, “Newport, Monmouthshire”, please! 😛
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And please don’t start an argument as to whether Monmouthshire is / was in England or Wales.
I don’t think either wanted it.
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Monmouthshire is weird. I once went to a rural pub there to watch Wales v England in the 5 Nations as was. Walked in wearing my Wales shirt only to find the place full of people with Welsh accents wearing England shirts! I found somewhere else to watch the game.
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It’s more English than Cambridge.
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Unlike London, Bill, where you find people with English accents wearing Welsh shirts. Or with American ones wearing Irish shirts.
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I reckon I’ve been more supportive of Wales and the Welsh on this blog than anyone.
They should let me cross the Severn for free.
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They do now, by road anyway, Martin 👍
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I was aware, but like the 99p a litre unleaded a bit pointless now 😕
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RM, I’ve always enjoyed your posts about Wales, especially those from in and around Wrexham, my hometown and legendary Home of the Bass Mirror.
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But “dent” doesn’t rhyme with “Monmouthshire”😉
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