TICKING SIR TOBY AT NORWICH MARKET

November 2023. Norwich.

Ornate, and Art Nouveau, the arcade leading you to your first Norwich tick in GBG24.

Yes, straight through to Norwich‘s colourful market, best seen from space (top).

For such a revered real ale city, the actual centre of Norwich doesn’t have as many great pubs as just outside the ring road. I think the Alf Garnet next to the market was the last Guide newbie I rated.

So what does Sir Toby on the market have to offer ?

And, more importantly, will I ever find it.

Distracted by the art I singularly fail to follow the GBG App instructions to Stalls 182 and 183,

lost in a warren of (closed) Himalayan Treasure stalls and whelk vendors. It’s like trying to find the vegetarian black pudding stall in Bury.

Ooh, there it is. Beer barrels have some use, guiding you to to beer shops.

There’s a couple of chairs for kerbside drinking, but Toby’s makes Manchester’s Micro Bar or Chorley’s Bob Inn seem like a giant Spoons.

Actually, while there’s a fair few indoor market bars (see also : Bolton), I can’t readily think of a another outside one. Can you ?

I don’t mind this sort of variety in the Guide, and I skip the lone cask for a hazy Pale from Phantom served by a chatty young chap who is no doubt waiting to be overwhelmed by drunk women asking for mulled wine once the Christmas decorations go up.

I go “ooh” at the big bottle of Delirium Tremens,

pondering for a split second popping back on the way home to buy it for a train beer Mrs RM’s Christmas present.

But then I remember I’ve already finished my Christmas present buying.

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Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

16 thoughts on “TICKING SIR TOBY AT NORWICH MARKET”

  1. Hi Martin, is Sir Toby now serving cask? the GBG suggests it only serves KeyKeg. The reason I ask is that our local branch have only this week nominated Norwich as our destination for our annual winter weekend away, most of us are old fogies and stick to Real CAMRA ideology.

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      1. So the real ale is a single cask “racked on the back” and judging by how it’s tilted there might just be a pint before the murk.

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      2. Fantastic city RM, you’ll love it. I can recommend the little corner bar opposite the main market entrance, good tapas, dirt cheap. Tapas Boatella. Has Spanish beer of some description.

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      3. Well, that might change the numerator of the fraction, but I can’t see how the denominator could ever be other than a power of two.

        Is there a mathematician/geneticist in the house?

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