STILL on Friday night, but only one of the recommended Hexham pubs in the Trailblazer Guide to Hadrian’s Wall left to do.
Of course, it’s the Spoons.
I know that love for the “People’s Pub Chain” isn’t universal, even amongst my esteemed readers. But you get a far better mix of folk in the Forum than you do in the local gastro, or the blokey boozer. And isn’t that what the CAMRAs want to see. Well, no, of course not; they want to see people like them.
It was 7pm on Friday night when we entered the Forum and while it wasn’t quite rammed, there was still a good hundred or so in and we were lucky to get a seat. I don’t know how much capacity has been reduced while Covid restrictions are in place, beyond the “no standing” at the bars or hanging from the pillars rules.
It’s a conversion of the old Roman forum, I guess. The beer range reflects AD122 tastes in beer, and the post-Heaventeenth tendency of Spoons to scrap those irritating local microbrews.
But that’s not the real story here. NEARLY ALL THE WINE HAD GONE !
I’d been planning to entertain you with a Fratton style mini bottle of Prosecco to end the evening in style, but all I saw was a row of SOLD OUTS on the App. Well done, Hexham.
So an Abbot (NBSS 3+) it was, a perfect accompaniment for the matchless cookie dough sandwich (NCDSSS 4.5).
Anyhow, the Forum rang with the joyous sound of drunk female laughter, their children playing the fruit machines, and Mrs RM made some comment about “the glass is smaller but the wine is fuller” that may be a metaphor for something.
Suddenly, into the first weekend of pubs being back, sort-of-normally, life felt great.
retiredmartin 
Everyone approves of a pub full of “people like us”.
Head looks a bit loose on that Abbot too.
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There speaks a true Northerner.
Some of us like irritating people in pubs, even if it’s only so we can blog about them !
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Do you mean you like to irritate people you come across in pubs, or you like people who are irritating?
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Definitely the latter.
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Far be it for me to suggest he occasionally manages both when he’s Des.
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Yes, and I quite liked ” People Like Us”, the radio and TV spoof on-location documentary (or mockumentary) of twenty years ago.
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Reminds me of the Peter Cushing Whitstable facade
https://images.app.goo.gl/ttzGpS1CY9G5hsdn7
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Good call.
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Is Cookie Dough Sandwich the latest Spoons attempt to garner the Craft Beer market?
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whilst admittedly it was nearly 17 years ago now since I last visited,so Im long overdue a revisit as things can change, but I do remember the Hexham Spoons as being a really good example of how well Spoons can be done, the beer was good, it was clean, friendly, the food was spot on, it was just how you want a relaxing beer in a pub to be, so much so I remember also having a discussion with my friends lamenting why couldnt our local Spoons be just as good. So its nice to hear its still a place to recommend.
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Agree. The cinema conversions are some of my favourites (Stafford, T Wells, March) as they seem to attract a wider range of public than the shop conversions.
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Yes, and a former work colleague of mine can be included in that “wider range of public”.
Tim has made me aware of how varied cinema interiors can be, the ceiling of Abergavenny’s with roof girders showing appearing to be built ‘on the cheap’ compared to Stafford’s with its magnificently plastered ceiling although Stafford’s does have noticeably cheaper bricks used for the side walls as with housing of that time and earlier, and that reminds me of Hook Norton’s Pear Tree, bricks at front and proper stones at sides when bricks were posher than stone.
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