No, it’s not a poll. I’m really not interested in which pub you’re be back in first. Knowing you lot, when you’re allowed back you’ll staying at home watching “Pretty Little Liars” on Netflix in your underpants drinking Caribbean Chocolate Cake Stout (8.8%).
This question was posed on Blue Moon, the Manchester City Forum which has been my main source of 100% information since we stopped the subscription to the BBC Russia Today.
You can probably work out what name I post under on the forum. As you’ll see, Mancunians are missing pubs ranging from Holt boozers to the Cloudwater tap.
Assuming pubs open the same days (they won’t), I’d head for a close one.
Of course, if we restart our lives with substantial meals it means less pints in the Blake and more pizza in the Blind Monkey. While I could live with that, I’m not sure our Proper Pubs could do, for lomg.
Ambling round industrial Sheffield has made me curiously homesick for the plain boozers like the Normanton in Burngreave.
Always remember that folk who drink Carling love their local pub even more than the bloke who drinks Cloudwater at the Port Street Beer House.
And just think how much better the blogs will be here than in the micropubs.
Stay positive, folks.
I think I’m most looking forward to pints of Bass and halves of Pork Pie by the stove in a rain-lashed George & Dragon, Belper.
However, I’m also most looking forward to a ramble up the valley for crap Langton Brewery beer in the Fox at Wilbarston, the Waitrose man-creche Beerhouse for Citras in Market Harborough, Bass with Cheese & Onion at the Boat Melton and Unicorn Lutterworth, and of course a mini-Thai banquet at the Brewery Tap in Peterborough. That’ll be quite a day then…
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Honestly….it’s the dullest possible answer, but the pub I’m most looking forward to visiting is…..
….the nearest one to me! The Fox and Pelican in Grayshott, Surrey…. full of southern softies and gentlefolk considering the virtues of truffle piled chips and some vegan avocado nonsense….
But it’s warm, and friendly and nice and they have a fire and armchairs and do a cracking Guinness and Chips 🙂
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Used to be a nice unspoilt Gale’s pub back in the day 😀
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Indeed…..it is a bit posher now, but hey local demographic and all that…On a summers day though I used to stop, pop the shopping on one of the tables out the front and have a reflective pint whilst watching the gentlefolk wander by….
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Ashamed to say I’ve never been there; pubs just off the A31 in the Beer Guide a rarity. Sounds good.
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That note. I’m done for. Public Health England should have it glued to their computer screens.
First pub. The first open door I see.
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By the way, correct answer is “Any Wetherspoons; need to get value from those 50p CAMRA vouchers before they run out”.
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Which is just as well as they’re likely to be the only ones in a position to reopen. I read somewhere the Wether-empire is looking to buy up struggling pubs at knock-down COVID prices. I imagine just one carpet from a closed Wether-warehouse could carpet half a dozen traditional boozers…
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But you can’t use them on meal deals, nor when ordering via the app. So good luck with finding a member of staff willing to take your order for that second pint after your substantial meal.
Has anyone on Discourse asked for a refund yet, btw?
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Yes, if we re-open in Tier 2 all bets are off.
Someone on Discourse said they’re cancelling their membership because they’re no longer getting any financial value from it, which says all you need to know about why many folk join CAMRA.
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Why else would you join CAMRA? The witty repartee on Discourse?
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That What’s Brewing newspaper ?
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Spoons.
Obvs,
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Correct answer.
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Cookie,
Spoons -10am ?
Proper Pub – noon ?
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Spoons is the properist of proper pubs for proper pubmen
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“Properist” is a great name for a pub chain. The Chinese could buy up all the micros for about £2m and run them under the “Properist” branding.
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If its a night out with my wife it would definitely be the local micropub called Fuggle and Golding. If it was a trip out with the lads it would have to be the local Wetherspoons for a Breakast and a beer (Lister Arms) followed by a visit to the Craven Arms in Appletreewick.
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I’ve been in the Fuggle & Golding! In my review on Pubs Galore I pointed out that “the name Fuggle & Golding is a little misleading, considering that those hops do not appear in a single one of the beers available.”
They should have called it the Citra, Centennial & Chinook instead.
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This very question also came up on Pubs Galore’s Forum last week, and you can read my thoughts there if interested: http://forums.pubsgalore.co.uk/showthread.php?33618-It-s-been-a-long-time (Looks like we’ll be shoulder-charging each other in the doorway of the Blake Hotel in our eagerness to get to the bar!)
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I’m always interested to read what you have to say, Will, as long as it doesn’t involve David Pleat and 1983.
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Enjoyed reading that, interesting to the Tredegar in E3 as a rare new future GBG entry (may have been years ago, only know the Palm Tree).
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The Crown in Hastings for lunch followed up by an afternoon in the Jolly Fisherman preferably on a foul day,returning to the station via The Jenny Lind,very well refreshed.Misbehaviour on the train & a final tincture in Maidstone Spoons.A perfect day
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I’m with you, Pauline; a good day out would involve a train journey and definitely an inadvisable Spoons. One of the Spoons is very good, can’t remember which one.
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Back to “normal”? You mean to how they were pre-1979, Martin?
Well, if so, then to the White Lion, Bramcote, near Nottingham, I suppose.
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1979 ? Pubs were ruined far before then, Etu. How I long for the hostelries of Dickens time with their “added ingredients” and bodies in the river behind the pub.
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Oh, I meant “things” generally rather than pubs – which I thought were on the whole getting better again in recent years.
You can still find pubs pretty much as you describe though, and not always near a dog track either.
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What could possibly be more important than pubs ?
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Sorry Etu, hadn’t even noticed the “normal”, just rambling on while watching the inauguration.
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Pies were tasty then as well. Particularly Mr Todds
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Etu,
1979 ?
Wasn’t north London in the news then ?
Possibly Finchley or Muswell Hill ?
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You’re right, Paul, wasn’t Tim Martin’s first Wetherspoons opened in north London in ’79.
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Ah, Muswell Hill, where Madness came from (in more than one sense).
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It seems that you catch my drift, Paul.
Just think, France’s trains were run by a thing called SNCF in 1979, and they still are today.
Does that mean that it qualifies as a Proper Country?
(I defer to your rich experience in the use of the word “proper”)
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I don’t really believe in countries, Etu, just people.
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Etu,
So France’s trains aren’t run by Deutsche Bahn ?
How have they managed that ?
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By striking.
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👏🏻
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Was troubled by the grease transfer from that kebab to the felt below until I saw the foil barrier.
Pub priorities:
Open
Cash
Cask
“Meal”
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BP,
“The grease transfer from that kebab” reminds me that I spilt grease from a kebab onto my trousers during four days in Eastbourne in 2009.
The previous day my trousers had got muddy from walking on the South Downs during rain.
My lesson from that is to take two spare pairs of trousers with me if I’m away on a short break.
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I’m surprised to read you’ve ever had a kebab, Paul. Surprised, but delighted.
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Note that he didn’t say it was his kebab.
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No masks
Definitely no table service and I get to choose where I sit
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Ideally, Ma Pardoe’s, the Ship in Porthleven or the Laurieston. Realistically, it’ll be the Thule (pron. Thoo-lee) in Lerwick for a pint of Tennent’s finest. NB: The Thule’s claim to fame is that it’s namechecked in the liner notes for Elvis Costello’s album “Spike”.
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I love “Spike”, his last great LP ?
Those 3 would all be good places to waste an afternoon, though in truth I’d rather do a huge crawl, possibly the 5 GBG pubs on Kirkstall. Sorry, Lerwick, you’re a GBG desert.
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I reckon Lerwick is more tundra than desert.
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When the world is back to normal, then I expect pubs as well to be back to normal. In which case the first pub I visit will be one I can just walk into – without having to sign in, or wear a muzzle on my face. I expect to be able to sit where I please, or stand at the bar, if I so desire.
I don’t want to be forced into purchasing a “substantial” meal, just so I can buy a pint, and I don’t want to queue up to use the Gents. I want to be able to talk to others in the pub, without having to keep my distance, or hide behind a Perspex screen.
Is this asking too much? Almost certainly, bearing in mind what we have signed up to, and the centuries old liberties we have lost – almost without a whimper. Am I being too harsh on what we’ve had to put up with, these past nine months? Quite possibly, but once the bulk of the population has been vaccinated, then I expect to be able to do all the things we could do (almost without thinking), prior to 23rd March 2020. Kentish Paul.
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“I want to be able to talk to others in the pub” I .think this is key, Paul.
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And able to just sit in quiet contemplation sometimes.
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Indeed. And it’s your choice, except when another Pub Man bursts in your solitude and shouts “Hello Paul !”.
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Yes indeed, there’s no nicer surprise than another Pub Man walking into the same pub.
But there’s other times when for quiet contemplation only a Proper Pub can equal a church, a window seat on a train or the seaside.
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For me, it’s going to have to be the Tyne Bar, closely followed by the Tynemouth Lodge and Barca in Tynemouth. A trip to Bar 38 in Newcastle for a 3am sesh won’t be long after, if late night venue openings ever happen again.
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The Fountain in Walsall for a pint of Backyard and a pork pie, that will be a wonderful return to normality.
Also hoping to get to Weymouth in the spring , blue skies a pint of something cold with the bridge down and the boats streaming through.
Mind you at the moment I’d happily drink a pint of carling in the local whilst watching the oss racing.
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Same here, Neil.
I do like Weymouth too. Underrated seaside town, and the boozers on Portland are legendary.
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Drinking at home I can almost put up with, but by God I need a decent gig. Combine the beer and music and I’d be in heaven; say the Musician in Leicester, or the Cluny, or Krakatoa, or that funny rock bar in the middle of Bristol.
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Someone else mentioned the Musician. It might have been me.
Which Bristol venue? The Fleece, next to Seven Stars is great.
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Is it the Griffin or something similar? Only time I’ve been in the Fleece the beer choice was dire. Seven Stars was OK. Bannermans in Edinbugh is a good double as well.
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