retiredmartin

July 2023. Alsager.

Nothing much in life gives me as much pleasure as visiting a place for the first time and getting to know it properly.

Scandalously, we’d been in Alsager two hours, visited three decent pubs, but still not seen the actual mere which is the only thing the town is known for (if at all). See also: Diss, Ellesmere, Hornsea.

Look, it’s nothing to write home about, perhaps the public views don’t do it justice but it won’t be supplanting the Shropshire version at the top of the Meres League;

But three good pubs in a row, free parking,

and a decent curry at Latifs, chosen expertly by Mrs RM. It’s a BYO, and the good folk of Alsager were certainly taking advantage of bringing their own cans of Madri. Perhaps Latifs have put the prices up a bit to compensate for the loss of alcohol profits, perhaps £14.95 is the going rate for a main course these days.

Very meat heavy, so no complaint about the quantity (NCSS 3.5), though not a patch on Bradford.

The dessert menu reminded me of the magical times we’d take our two young lads to a curry house and let them have a Quacky Duck for pudding. I miss those days.

Now a bit of a grim recollection. On my only previous visit the public toilets had started leaking into the High Street, perhaps as a dry run for the planned leakage into the sea.

It was deeply unpleasant, and good to see the loos have been cleaned up.

You don’t get toilet detail like that on other blogs. You don’t get loos in public car parks, either, which isn’t a problem for blokes in our patriarchal society as we can use a 2020 Triple fff container,

but Mrs RM needed to pop across the road to the Railway for a pre-bed wee.

Oooh, look etc etc.

“They like their pubs here don’t they ?” said Mrs RM, before squeezing through to the ladies.

Nice people, packed pub, (late) buffet for the darts teams,

and a decent half of Bass outside at dusk.

But Bass isn’t really a beer you sup in halves, is it ?