Retired Martin Day. South Cave.
Not the most spectacular birthday, but huge relief after resolving a major domestic issue* that morning to actually be out, somewhere I hadn’t really been before.
And after a great new find in Beal, a complete circuit of Snaith, a bath (first of the year) in a castle, and a pint of Doom Bar in a Voltarol themed pub in South Cave, the traditional treat awaited.
No, not a walk to the White Hart in North Cave. I note BRAPA did a sodden walk there in 2015, but I have to think of Mrs RM’s feet, so we looked to the South for our supper.
Simon, who has now visited so many pubs I find his blog indispensable in my own research, had found the lone Chinese/chippy closed. Even the takeaways are scared of Colin.
BRAPA ended up at the Fox & Coney over the road, dining on chicken wings (£8) and celery.
That would have done me (obvs not the celery, I’m not an animal), but I wasn’t coming to the mouth of the Humber and resisting Gochujiang sauce, was I ?
“Take about 15 minutes ? Time for a pint” I ask the young English lad.
“About 15 minutes“. I put a tip in the Christmas box, which also ensures we get prawn crackers later.
We nearly didn’t get a table in the Fox & Coney to while away that quarter hour,
This is a smart looking gastro, the sort of place you get in Saffron Walden, not Goole.
Folk have dressed for the evening and I don’t think it’s just for Retired Martin Day.
Simon wrote “the F&C nearly made the 2024 GBG too / instead, but the owner took umbridge with the local CAMRA citing rudeness (amazing and embarrassing how often I hear such tales) and decides he didn’t want to feature in the poxy book anyway!“
So I decide not to ask for my CAMRA 10% discount from the hardworking staff who’d then check my gold card with the owner and have us thrown out.
They’ve an impressive beer range (Rudgate, Wold Top, Great Newsome),
for folk who like that sort of thing, but my house beer is impressively average,
though Mrs RM rates her 6 % Scarborough Fair IPA highly, because it 6%.
Most of the pub is dining in an impressively rambling area (fully booked, so I’d never have got the £34 Beef Wellington anyway), but the bar is nicely done, even if your feet don’t always touch the floor.
I went to take our glasses back, noticing that the clip for my average pint appeared to be half pulled round. Oooh, had I just had the end of the barrel ?
Clinging on to my old pint glass, I decided to give the Fox a late chance of redemption and decanted a half of Good Elf (ugh) into it. Nope, still lacking much condition.
Which isn’t something that could be said about the Crispy Shredded Beef, Salt & Pepper Squid and Singapore Rice, expertly decanted onto one of those plastic plates that hold the cups in the Cave Castle 30 minutes later.
This was an NCTSS 4.5 effort from South Cave, though I blame the caffeine in the Gochujiang sauce for my being awake between 2am and 5am reading MumsNet (something about a sister faking a trip to France to get out of cooking Christmas lunch).
*Details available in scratch and drip form exclusively to Patronised readers
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