May 2024. Sheffield.
Before I start, Happy Birthday James, a quarter century just flew past.
A big day in our household as Alfie, Baa Baa and Charlie get their annual wash, a first for Charlie.
I put them on the lowest wash and spin so they wouldn’t shrink (#domesticated), and popped out for a pub lunch.
Kentish Paul had just reminded me of the joys of bargain grub with a pint, and the Fat Cat had just reopened its kitchen.
Those pies look a bit pricier than I remember, but let’s not complain, a pie and a pint well under £15 is still a steal, though Stafford Paul may correct me.
The Fat Cat has lost the “Kelham Island” beers but if anything upped its cask game even further,
with Chin Chin and Two by Two on the bar recently.
And the Chin Chin stout, enjoyed in one of my favourite pub seats on earth,
is slightly tart but exquisitely cool, rich and silky (NBSS 4).
I’m a bit disappointed by the size of the pie, though.
And I mean the pie. The chicken is plentiful, the casing gorgeous but meagre. But I’m not really complaining, there’s plenty of lovely veg and I need to lose weight, and it’s still marvellous.
The couple across from me sat something along the lines of “Ee by gum not as big as they were” and a mum with a toddler tells me there’s only “Six chicken nuggets in the Iceland pack now, it’s shrinkflation“.
I love those cheery conversations in pubs. And folk reading out the whole menu to each other.
A table of four peruse the new offerings. The bloke wants pork pie “Because it’s nearly Summer“; apropos of nothing his wife reminds him “You’ve got cheese and crackers for tea“. The other chap has soda because he’s at the dentist later. They chink glasses, and discuss the history of IPAs, and it’s good to see the Fat Cat with such a mixed trade on a weekday lunchtime.
And back home, 3 newly washed folk show no signs of shrinkage, so all is well.
retiredmartin 
Definitely bargain pub grub at the Fat Cat, and jolly tasty, as well.
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I hope I don’t come across as criticising the food as it was great, it’s just the pastry casing was gorgeous but meagre !
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Your comments don’t come across as criticising Martin, but no one’s keeping score, and in answer to the pricing, issue, discussed below, a tenner for pie, chips, gravy and peas, is good value, especially to a southerner like me.
Btw Bill, I’d forgotten all about that “substantial meal” nonsense. Thankfully, it’s all faded into oblivion – a bit like Matt Hancock!
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“It’s not just pie in those pies, you know?” ~ Greg Davies
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Textbook ‘Dagging’ of those rear-ends Martin. You’ve clearly been watching too much Jack Hargreaves on Talking Pictures…
(The Real) Mark
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A tenner for a pie sounds a bit steep even if it does come with chips, gravy (both fine) and peas (ugh). However, it would certainly have qualified as a substantial meal during the Great Madness of a few years ago.
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I wouldn’t have thought a tenner for home made pie, chips and veg was that steep, even in Sheff !
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How much in a proper working man’s caff these days?
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“a pie and a pint well under £15 is still a steal, though Stafford Paul may correct me”.
Two pies, chips, peas and gravy and two pints of Bathams Mild for £15.40 in the Bull and Bladder.
And yesterday lunchtime in Egremont I thought £7.50 for a proper meal was quite good.
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When you next make it over to Sheffield for a night out I’ll take you for Pie and a Pint in the Fat Cat and you can tell me what you think, Paul.
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Yes, it was an excellent meal, and the Landlord drinking well, there with Will in September 2022
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One of the best places for Tim Taylor in Sheffield, and cask has been excellent as ever lately.
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