June 2023. Bexhill (-on-Sea, if you must, pedants)
Yes, another sunny morning in Sussex, and while Mrs RM works in the caravan I do the hard yards of exploring pubs culture on the coast.
Bexhill is one of those towns I’ve always wrote off as “dull south coast retirement Cons club“, with two flying visits to tick the longstanding social club and new micro not changing that view much.
Who knew Suzy Izzard is claimed by Bexhill.
Quite a lot of decent art on the walk across the railway bridge, too, before the town gives way to a dull network of shops and bakeries.
But at least there’s a Spoons, where all human life is found.
The Picture Playhouse isn’t in the Guide, but had one of the better line-ups from local breweries I’d seen in a Spoons post-Covid. Just who is buying these ?
Bet you thought “he’ll go Doom Bar, though“. Nope, I’m always keen to support local craft cask at £2.50 a pint, and Cellar Head Pale (cool, rich, 3+) enjoyed its tour of the Spoons carpets.
A lovely conversion of the old cinema, where I learn that Spike was based here in the war, as well as being buried down the road in Winchelsea.
This was a typical “Spoons gentlefolk diner“, where I got the chance to try out one of their new poached egg and salsa breakfast dishes (not bad, but not a patch on the Miners Benedict).
A couple of octogenarians took the table closest to me so I could hear the entire conversation, which is the sort of service to bloggers I appreciate.
“Do. You. Enough. Room.” she asks him, in a way that sets my teeth on edge, before they enter into a normal paced conversation about “the last frontier”, the “mothership” and, of course, other folks medical complaints.
It’s enormously entertaining, in a way that people who only nip in and out of pubs rather than luxuriating over a pint and a quality book spotted on the Spoons shelves will never appreciate.
But what more does Bexhill have to offer the curious pub man (or woman) ?
retiredmartin 