HOP SHOPPE – RESIST THE TASTERS ! RESIST !

January 2024. St Annes.

I took Mrs RM back her bag of Maltesers from the Travelodge vending machine (£1.30, inflation), and headed straight out to my second tick.

A word on St. Annes (is there a full stop after the St. ? Never know).

You can trust a place whose sports shop has more City shirts than Liverpool or United ones.

It’s a pleasant, Victorian-era seaside resort, neat rather than entrancing.

like a very upmarket New Brighton, perhaps. So you get a few attractive old buildings,

but no cutting (or even sarcastic) street art.

You can tell a place is upmarket when they teach 3 year olds to play Mozart piano sonatas.

I see that No. 10 Ale House is now renamed The Ducks Nuts; I await Blackpool Jane’s review,

Jane had plenty to say about the Hop Shoppe a couple of years ago, good and less so.

Not to be mixed up (though I actually did recently, I think) with Keg n Cask across the road, Hop Shoppe is a destination micro, with people dressing up to visit, and bringing their toddlers out with them. It’s a huge success story, clearly, though I wonder why such a beery place took so long to debut in the Guide.

They’re in between beers, in cask at least, and although I’m asked what sort of thing I like and reply “beer” I can only see one pump in use so it’s a pointless little dance.

“Would you like a taster first” asks a charming and cheery barmaid, who then does the “Whatever YOU prefer” when I ask whether they’d prefer cash or card (because many business genuinely have a preference).

“No thanks, a pint’s a taster” I say, a strategy that will fail me badly in Preston the next day.

There’s a “sort of space” on a seat at the end of a long high table.

A “sort of space” is one that is uncomfortably close to another couple, one of whom is trying to claim the space by putting their pashmina on the table. But I’m not going to be here long, they can deal with it.

The Salt Stout isn’t bad, tasty but lacking NBSS 3 level crispness, and I’m a bit resentful I hadn’t picked the keg Cloudwater at £12 a pint.