November 2024. Wood Green. London.
Three ticks by two, on a Sunday. I’d forgotten what multiple GBG pub ticking was.
Leaving Higham Hill, I nearly got distracted by the craft options on Blackhorse Road;
Actually, it’s Cafe Rodi I regret being too full to tick,
their Mediterranean breakfast looks like a thing of beauty.
20 minutes after resisting Cafe Rodi I’d changed from Victoria to Piccadilly line and was already at Wood Green,
one of those innumerable bits of dull Middlesex that annoyingly I can’t distinguish.
I couldn’t even recall The Prince, the only reason to visit Wood’s Green.
OK, it was drizzling. OK, I wanted to get back to St Pancras for the train to Rye, but is this really the best image I could find emerging from the underground ?
Apparently so.
Our rare N22 Guide newbie is almost handy for the Tottenham Hotspur ground I should have been visiting for a first time a week earlier, before family drama intervened, and there’s bouncers at the gates of Doom (Bar),
though since Spoons don’t show footy I presume their only task is to ensure CAMRA members show valid vouchers before getting pints discounted below their crucial £2.50 level.
A lady behind the bar refuses a chap who’s clearly drunk too much another pint of Bud, but otherwise it’s an oasis of family friendly calm and reflection.
And that’s the thing. Unique carpets aside, it’s easier to write about Spoons in the general (perception, pricing, politics) than in the specific. The Spouters Corner could be in Maidstone or Macclesfield or Montrose and you wouldn’t know the difference. They’re all packed.
But that pint of Hopspur, its bubble intact at the bar, is a chewy 3.5. Let’s celebrate a period of good Spoons beer quality, while it lasts.
retiredmartin 