August 2024. Sheffield.
Three (3) days confined to the house resting my aching back I don’t like to talk about, but Thursday saw me heading out in desperation for fresh air and a leg stretch.
And a pub. Nothing new, I think my closest new Guide pub is in Llandudno, but one of the row of traditional pubs below Kelham’s beer shrines but above West Street’s clubs had just been re-launched.
The Dog and Partridge,
The Grapes (if only for Guinness),
and Red Deer are all classic examples of Sheffield’s strength in depth below the “classics”,
The Red Deer is a personal favourite, a pub I first ticked in ripped jeans having tripped on the tram tracks in my desperation to make last orders, in the days before 24 hour licensing.
More recently a Plum Porter and Black Sheep stronghold, the “New” Red Deer’s line up is as disappointing as “New” Labour.
And the Wainwright was off !
But the pub is still wonderful, a mix of students, postgrads and “mature” parties.
Two blokes explain card games to the Old Boy drinking Gamma Ray at the bar, a dozen diners are finishing up in the raised area, and I appear to be the only cask drinker.
In fact, I am the only drinker in the 20 minutes I’m there, a Broadside lacking bite (NBSS 3) followed by a tasty Oakham Citra (3+). Fine margins separate a 3 and a 3+.
I only stayed because the soundtrack was so good,
and also to see what would happen, admiring the ability of folk to linger over a half of lemonade.
Sorry, a pint of lemonade.
retiredmartin 
Thirty years ago it was the DBA we’d go to the Red Deer for.
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Aren’t those lingerers the ones killing pubs?
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20 marks. Show workings.
I’ve noted the folk who go to pub quizzes making a half last 2 hours.
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Sounds impossible, although I’ve observed similar situations myself. 15 years ago, whilst walking the South Downs Way with a friend, we spent the night at the excellent Sportsman at Amberley. That evening, the pub hosted a “Poetry Reading Event”, and yes, there were several participants who did their best to make a couple of halves last the evening.
All rather hi-brow, and more that a bit pretentious. The landlord reached the same conclusion as well, as the three of us joked about it, the following morning, over breakfast.
Glad to see both the Sportsman and the Black Horse, in the village, have re-opened, after a period of closure.
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Yes Dave, I know someone who might only go a pub to watch a televised football match and even if not driving would “linger over a half of lemonade” for the duration of the match, and before leaving home would prepare his own sandwiches to take. He lives in a village where the pub, the Eagles, closed nine years ago. And yes, he really is a member of the Ramblers Association.
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I blame CAMRA, for banning pub crawls and promoting the cultured tasting of beer and tasters, It’s a slippery slope that ends with £8 pints and no sales.
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I’m sure I’ve commented about this before Paul, but a year or so, whilst out for my regular lunchtime walk, I noticed a group of ramblers sitting out in the garden of the Little Brown Jug (Chiddingstone Causeway). Not only were they unashamedly eating their own sandwiches, but were also imbibing tea or coffee, from Thermos flasks.
You really have to wonder about the bare-faced cheek of some people!
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Absolute truth. I was there 22 minutes, apart from my beers they served a pint of lemonade and a free glass of water, but on the face of it quite busy as there were around 20 in as I arrived.
I notice this in similar Cambridge pubs, the post-grad crowd, 2 with glasses of water, 1 with a coke.
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