retiredmartin

February 2024. Manchester.

A Monday lunchtime pub session with Paul Mudge is never a quiet affair.

11:20 The Millstone

11:45 The Hare & Hounds

12:35 Mr. Thomas’s Chop House

13:15 Briton’s Protection

13:50 Paul was off to check-in at his Youth Hostel; I was heading home..

“Unless you fancy a nightcap, Paul ?“. Well, you can’t have a nightcap at ten to two, and besides I’d assured Paul I was stopping on four, and it’s important to stick to rules, isn’t it ?

So I took the picturesque route back to Piccadilly,

suddenly aware I’d only had a packet of scratchings in the Briton, wondering what “Bar Food” in the Peveril of the Peak amounted to.

No, save the Pev for another day, and instead just find myself unable to walk past the Molly House.

The Molly is the local CAMRA pub of the year, after all, and it’s my duty to see if the cask is drinking well on a quiet Monday lunchtime in February.

Of course, Pub of the Year rewards a lot of things other than beer quality; diversity and inclusion, support to microbreweries, banging soundtracks…

Yes, first airing of The Andrews Sisters since Paul Mudge was in shorts.

I’ve no idea what Paul would have made of Big Trip’s Cosmic Weirdness, “a tropical fruit salad in a glass”,

but my NBSS scores suggest I thought it was astonishing,

rather better than the beer 9 years ago, in fact.

How reassuring is that ?

On a quiet afternoon in the Molly I got to explore the gorgeous upstairs rooms,

and the pissoir.

and the Molly House suddenly made perfect sense, even if I forgot to order any food from the open kitchen.

And remember kids, just say…