retiredmartin

December 2023. Grimsby.

Part 3 of my Greater Grimsby crawl curated tour of public houses, as I realised I might as well do ALL the GBG pubs while I’m here.

I hadn’t been in the Barge for 10 years,

but I remembered the best haddock and chips ever there, and a man should not enter the gates of Grimsby without tasting their fish and chips.

Converted grain barges are a rarity in the Guide; Charters in Peterborough still thrives but the Albatros in Wells-next-the-Sea is currently closed, and the Barge is a bit quiet in that tricky period between Christmas and New Year.

An unfussy place, aimed at people who like cheap drinks, a quality jukebox and don’t mind the slope. Well, it worked for Yeovil.

I stand by what might or might not be the oven, and wait for the landlady to come down to take my order for haddock, chips and mushy peas.

“Food ! W’avent served food for years !“. The emphasis on the “years” suggests mine may have been the last meal served in 2014.

No bother. There’s beer,

the same beer I had a decade ago. On Peterborough’s barge you get Citra, and probably craft, but in Grimsby you get a classic foamy pint of Bombardier for under £4, best Bombardier for years (NBSS 3.5).

Lacings never lie. Except when they do.

A group of six lads, having recovered from Boxing Day, ordered pints of Madri and pints of raspberry sambuca. I often think BRAPA should end his London days with that order in the Parcel Yard.

The round cost £35.

That would leave plenty of cash for the rounds in Grimsby’s smart pubs, if there were any, and certainly enough to keep the jukebox going till midnight.

By which time you’d be sick of Beartooth.

Who ?