Not many Bob Carters in the Beer Guide, or Artichokes.
Plenty of pubs, though, in one of the prime cities for GBG entries.
The Artichoke is just north of Norwich’s artisanal inner ring road, and I must have walked past the pub’s lovely flinty curves a dozen times en route to the Lord Rosebery, Duke, Fat Cat Tap and Bhaji Man Curry Kits.
Nice church for the non-purists, too.
Oooh. I do like an obstacle course. Do I hurdle those barrels ?
So what’s got the Artichoke in the Guide in a year when one pump pubs and Wherry are all the rage ?
Ah. The craft beer electronic displays.
I took the seats nearest the beer board.
The staff were great; they let me wait for the keg and then cask lists to come round, but I got distracted by the White Stripes and missed my chance, just like you used to miss page 304 on Ceefax and have to wait for it to show up again next week.
“Do you need more time ?” said the nice man, “What sort of thing you after ?“
Me ? Need more time. I squinted at the pumps and plumped for the 3 Blind Mice Juice Rocket, as I’m a murk man really.
“Bootiful. Thank you my friend” he says. Aren’t young people great.
A lovely crisp pint (NBSS 3.5+), beautifully matched with the curry peanuts, I thought.
High tables, young crowd, murk beers. Stafford Paul would love it.
retiredmartin 
Why are they in the Guide? Perhaps they’ve managed to achieve an artichoke cooking method acceptable for GBBF?
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Try putting artichoke sandwiches on for the Norwich CAMRAs branch meeting; see how that goes down.
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Page 304 on Ceefax. Great line. Wasn’t that going to be the name of your new micropub? A closer look at the handpumps suggests it’s a worthy addition in a competitive area.
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Page 304 on Ceefax ? Wasn’t that an Antic pub in Walthamstow where BRAPA nicked an olive in 2016 ?
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I can picture the look on Paul’s face as he sits at a table in that pub. There’s really nothing quite like it. A very subtle look as he peers around.
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I miss Paul’s company in pubs.
There may well have traditional seating in the other rooms but as you’ll know I’ll be shot if I move around to take a look 😉
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I second that thought. I miss Paul too.
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Martin, Dave,
That would never be my favourite Norwich pub but on the basis of “any port in a storm” I wouldn’t mind the “high tables, young crowd, murk beers”.
Yes, not getting to pubs and missing the wonderful company therein is making this my worst year ever. But maybe there will be a sort of normality sometime next year.
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“is just north of Norwich’s artisanal inner ring road”
I must confess, seeing ‘art-is-anal’ and ‘inner ring’ so close together made me blink for a second.
“Do I hurdle those barrels ?”
Crickey!
“I took the seats nearest the beer board.”
Wise move.
“just like you used to miss page 304 on Ceefax and have to wait for it to show up again next week.”
Good lord; I actually understood that.
“Aren’t young people great.”
The word ‘unwordly’ comes to mind. 😉
“Stafford Paul would love it.”
I would never have guessed that of him. 😉
Cheers
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It would be Paul’s 8th pint of the day by then 😉
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