retiredmartin

November 2024. Eastbourne.

A few days down in Rye with Mrs RM to give us both respite from child/parent duties, and allow me to get a couple of bits of pink marker in a GBG that’s feeling unloved.

Just under the hour to Eastbourne with a couple of new (and, Spoiler : controversial) entries, but that wasn’t enough to tempt Mrs RM to join me on the Two Together.

It’s nice to be near the sea, I’m told, it reminds you of death.

But the Spoons opposite reminds you of life,

and having ignored its charms on numerous visits here I succumbed to an 11am pint.

What makes the GBG perennial London and County worth drifting away from the Harvey’s for ?

Well, a second Three Acres Stout in succession under £2.50 with those increasingly scruffy little vouchers started a bit “sharp”, as stouts do.

But by halfway it was a cool, chewy, complex pint (NBSS 3.5) with none of the “long pull” associated with Spoons. A 3rd JDW winner in a row,

The building looks pubby, perhaps because it was one, and is packed with life of all ages.

And a random ladder that, if moved to the Towner Art Gallery, would be its most interesting exhibit.

High stools only (upstairs has masses of empty tables but who goes upstairs in a Spoons ?), and high chairs for a mass of toddlers.

One chap has ordered his Big Breakfast to my seat before abandoning it for a comfier table, and I delight in delivering it to him. I could take up waitressing if I have to un-retire.

A pint of stout at 11am tends to make you slow down and re-focus, and I took the air in the town’s quite dreadful pedestrianised shopping street, redeemed by this chap’s version of Hallelujah (Press PLAY).