March 2024. Hankelow. Audlem.
Three pubs in Audlem (pop. 1,991) and another one in tiny Hankelow, home to a rare new GBG tick for me as 2024 becomes a year of revisiting old classics.
Hankelow feels a million miles from Nantwich Crewe to the north and Newcastle-under-Lyme Stoke to the east, an area of farms and nurseries and the Secret Nuclear Bunker at Hack Green.
I know it’s secret because the sign said “Secret” when we visited 15 years ago (it’s great); I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a micropub down there.
The White Lion opens for business at 11:30 (9am at the weekend), a very useful bonus for tickers who want to avoid the gastro gentlefolk crowds arriving at noon.
Actually, the front door isn’t open, because everyone is expected to enter from the car park.
I propose to let the pictures do the talking here.
Cushions,
side cabinet with tat,
croquet set,
“modern” seating,
Daily Mail. All present and correct. But Mrs RM is most taken with the “disembodied rabbit“. Press PLAY now;
It doesn’t take much to impress/horrify us in pubs.
Mrs RM took up position on the sofa,
while I surveyed the beer range inevitably underpinned by “the Locale one”.
Four seemed excessive, and a conversation going on nearby about “Real ale drinkers” rather confirmed that the pub thought what the occasional cask drinker wants is “choice”.
I don’t; I want a well conditioned pint. The Shropshire Gold wasn’t bad, you’d not take it back (except in a Spoons); but it wasn’t good either.
The coffee (delivered via a proper machine which made my ears buzz) was, however, superb, as were the loos. And for once Mrs RM and I were in agreement that the newly re-opened White Lion was incredibly well done and would no doubt meet the needs of its clientele. And the 34 village investors who bought it to prevent it becoming yet another roadside casualty.
retiredmartin 
I’ve been to the nuclear bunker. I found it a bit eerie in that it was furnished with brown Whitley furniture which was standard Civil Service issue in the 80s. I had a desk like the ones in there. Also, there was a dedicated desk for the Inland Revenue. Who the hell were they going to tax in the event of nuclear Armageddon?
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I’d rather not have been reminded of Whitley meetings through the 1980s.
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The Cheshire branches really have a track record of choosing this kind of “never mind the quality, feel with width” places, don’t they?
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Yes, and the thing to emphasise is that’s no criticism of restaurant puns like this, which cater for their customers (and village shareholders) very well. If we’d just stopped for lunch, coffee and comfort break it would have been great. Four beers is ridiculous.
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You may not have been there, as I don’t think it’s ever been in the GBG, but the <a href=”https://whatpub.com/pubs/TEL/401/hinds-head-norton-in-hales“>Hind’s Head</a> at Norton in Hales is another example of a community-owned poncy gastropub.
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Never been in GBG, and the lack of the second decimal in the pricing (£14.5) is the giveaway !
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Yes indeed, and the former Wrenbury coffee shop owners now at the nearby Bhurtpore at Aston have done the same which, along with food placed artistically on plates, suggests that it’ll no longer be worth going to.
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Absolutely, Paul – this Your Dinner On A Plate malarkey is so working class.
Apart from the meat or fish that I’ve ordered, I far prefer to serve myself the accompaniments, which come in their own dishes after I have chosen what they are.
Call me Old Fashioned…
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Why on earth do they do that? It’s so annoying.
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And also 14,5
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Saves on washing up and table space, Bill.
Also caters for the generation, many of whom have apparently been fed like pets by their parents.
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You lost me at Daily Mail 🙂
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