PARSNIPS

I shall not be disheartened. I shall press on.

To Wimbotsham.

The Chequers was the nearest new GBG pub, 40 minutes north via the interminable roadworks at Waterbeach waste management centre (opened by Kim Wilde).

The 30 miles between Ely and King’s Lynn is a bit of a wasteland for Guide tickers, though the newish Spoons in Downham has just made GBG21, bringing joy to the parsnip pickers of ultra-green West Norfolk.

But you rarely get a plain village pub debuting in the Guide, so let joy be unconfined in Wimbotsham (pop. 664). It’s a bit like when a little town like Harrogate reaches the Football League and you get to hear the name read out on the results service each week.

I guess Autumn is the ideal time to visit.

The parsnips have fallen off the parsnip trees, Doctor Who has arrived to resolve a mystery about Beer Guide allocations,

and the Chequers has installed an ambitious covered beer garden to welcome the flood of GBG tickers you get in the first week of Guide inclusion, before the sods close you down again.

One bar, three areas to drink and eat, one great Landlord in a waistcoat and visor who doesn’t stand on ceremony and waves us in the general direction of a table by the window with the locals.

On a Wednesday lunchtime there’s a dozen or more in for the half-price lunches that might seem a tad overprice normally but now is not the time to be picky.

There’s not a lot of banter, per se, but we’re next to the notice board and can therefore entertain ourselves by reading about logs.

Mrs RM orders a pint of Oakham Inferno.

A minute later, the landlord returns and asks “Was that a PINT ?“

You should have seen Mrs RM’s face. #everydaysexism

“There you are, young lady“, says our landlord, redeeming himself.

The Oakham was the perfect temperature, but my half of a rich Abbot edged it (3.5), and anyone who complains about the quality of GBG entries doesn’t get out enough to places like this.

We both had homemade ham, egg and chips, and the whole thing came to about fifteen quid.

We left the dropped parsnip for the next GBG ticker and moved east.

Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

12 thoughts on “PARSNIPS”

  3. It’s an odd one, this menu prices business.

    I used to be a regular at the brilliant New Darjeeling in Nottingham in the early 1980s. A main course was about eight quid.

    Many people still baulk at paying more for a meal to this day, but accept upwards of ten times the then price for a house.

    I can only assume that the social and professional status of running a restaurant must have fallen since then?

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    1. I remember paying about £6-7 for a main course in Hertfordshire 30 years ago; £6 was pretty much the Good Pub Guide definition of a “bargain meal” back then. The Fat Cat is Sheffield would have been half that.

      30 years later everyone expects to eat for £6, sometimes with a free drink, due to Spoons, Hungry Horse and 2-for-1 dining everywhere.

      NB Nottingham’s curry houses are the most expensive I’ve come across; 3000 miles from Delhi and Singhs, both excellent, but a good £3 a main course more than I’d pay in Cambridge or Sheffield.

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  6. “I shall not be disheartened. I shall press on.”

    Which is what I said after comparing my, um, ‘parsnip’, to the one above. 😉

    “But you rarely get a plain village pub debuting in the Guide, so let joy be unconfined in Wimbotsham (pop. 664).”

    Blimey! Good for them.

    But, what’s with Railway Road actually running alongside the Great Ouse River?

    “Doctor Who has arrived to resolve a mystery about Beer Guide allocations,”

    Crickey! (LOL)

    “before the sods close you down again.”

    All I can say to those bloody sods is… sod that!

    “there’s a dozen or more in for the half-price lunches that might seem a tad overprice normally but now is not the time to be picky.”

    Mac n cheese for 10 quid? Even at half the price that’s still almost double what my darling wife charges.

    And what’s with the Halloumi fries? Why not just say Poutine? 🙂

    “but we’re next to the notice board and can therefore entertain ourselves by reading about logs.”

    That Mr. Kelly does get around… the board at least.

    And, don’t knock the board too much. We’re having a helluva time finding folk in town to do odd jobs around the house. 😉

    “You should have seen Mrs RM’s face.”

    LOL!

    “There you are, young lady“,

    Well done him! 🙂

    “We both had homemade ham, egg and chips,”

    What? No spam?
    (oh, right… you’re not a big Monty Python fan)

    Cheers!

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