March 2024. Sheffield.
Ian had arranged National Bass Day for the 30th March, so it didn’t take the gloss of the Doom Bar celebrations two days later.
Only one place in Sheffield,
and by good fortune it coincided with the Folk Weekend.
I guarantee you won’t find a better collection of pubs to hold a music festival anywhere in the country, unless the Honeypot in Maidenhead has a karaoke night.
At the bar a chap orders the first Bass of the session.
“Good day for it !” I say, jovially, but remarkably he hasn’t heard of National Bass Day so perhaps Ian needs to think bigger than the Youlgrave Enquirer for the adverts in 2025.
If you’re having one pint of Bass on NBD I reckon Fagan’s is as good as anywhere,
Particularly with the Irish session in the back room for company.
Somehow I resisted the pork pies,
but nearly a week later I can’t for the life of me remember why.
Anyway, NBSS 3.5 for the Bass, poured with tight sparkler applied. It took all my willpower to resist a second with sparkler removed and spark a heated debate on here about the merits of both.
In nearly every respect I reckon Fagan’s is as good as it ever was, a melting pot of Sheffield life.
That one small reservation is £5.20 a pint, but I don’t suppose you can move up from Cambridge and complain about beer prices, can you ?
Can you ?
retiredmartin 
I think I’m learning to prefer the normal Bass to the Teesside version in The Sun. That’s maturity for you!
Still to have one this year I think unless my memory is deceiving me…after two bankers there on Christmas Day…
Now they removed the Castlegate centre, I can almost see it from my Riverside Study.
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I assume the Bass mirror factory in Wrexham has been working overtime in preparation for this auspicious day.
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i had no idea this special day was last week, but I managed my first pint of Bass in over a year two days ago in the Cross Foxes in Shrewsbury thanks to your blog archives, catching an earlier train northwards which forced me to change at Shrewsbury.
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Glad you made it, Rhys.
Pub Curmudgeon is a big fan of the Cross Foxes too, took ages to get in the GBG though.
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After spending
far too muchtime in Shrewsbury. I can report:I completely missed the Cross Foxes, where’s that?
The coffee is awful.
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Coleham area, just south over the river from the town centre.
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Whose coffee?
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Everywhere. Couldn’t find any nice coffee in Shrewsbury.
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