December 2024. Faversham.
I doubt this will make my Top 10 Posts of the Year, or even of the day, but the blog is a diary, and sometimes uncomfortable truths need to be spoken.
Spoons cask is getting better. Just ask the Tand. He knows.
And in Hounslow, Eastbourne and now Faversham the beer has beat the impressive GBG competition,
the Leading Light adding a second NBSS 4 to its debut on my spreadsheet a lifetime ago.
But why (oh why) did I pop in the Spoons after the Elephant, when Fav (as the kidz, if there were any, call it) with all those Sheps pubs around the market place to bring you ?
Well, I was famished (in Fav). So, with a return trip on the cards due to the non-opening of the craft bar I’d postponed the Chinese takeaway, and now fancied a Spoons curry.
As Maltmeister will tell you, a Spoons curry is a poor substitute for “the real thing”, the Pabst Blue Ribbon of the curry world, but “the real thing” doesn’t open till 6.
And at 4:30pm on a Sunday you can be eating a completely inauthentic Chicky Tikky Masala with too many poppadoms (four, I took 2 back to the campervan wrapped in my Spoons Magazine).
Look, I wouldn’t choose a Spoons for my birthday (22/12, but you knew that), but for a tenner you get a huge plate of stodge, an astonishingly smooth, rich, Great Newsome Christmas ale,
and that joy of being in a place filled with happy people,
Believe me, that IS happy for Faversham.
retiredmartin 
Where will you choose for 22/12? Sounds like a Doom Bar quiz. I have Ypres Castle.
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You will be disappointed.
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I have in mind a village, also a borough, I have never been to before.
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I thought I might get a hint from your blog map but I don’t think that it’s up to date.
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It WAS up to date once, Jon. Perhaps a task for Christmas Day when pubs are shut ?
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Martin, You know how I hate getting drawn into discussing Wetherspoons but my use of several of Tim’s venues this year suggests that his beer quality is NOT getting better. Maybe though that’s because I usually get a pint that’s been in the line overnight, which might explain why for some Pub Men mornings are “a little too early for a drink”.
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And that’s fair, Paul, it was a question drawn only from my own and a few others’ experience.
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I’ve visited a couple of Spoons recently (Berkhamsted and Watford), and in the past was always wary of the ale quality, but on these recent visitations I was served with a drinkable pint – faint praise I know – but the pint was deffo drinkable, even went back for seconds…
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I had good beer in that central Spoons as well, Tony, and the ones in Wood Green and at St Pancras, and by good I mean Beer Guide standard I’d be happy to drink again.
And I don’t think that improvement can be put down to more customers drinking cask !
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Tony,
Surely “a drinkable pint” can be expected in Watford, home of Tim’s headquarters, and Berkhamsted, just ten miles north-west.
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If only it worked like that, Paul.
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I’m a far too irregular visitor to Spoons to pass judgement here, but a month ago I had a very acceptable pint of Island Street Porter, from Salcombe Brewery, at the Sir John Oldcastle, in Farringdon.
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That’s the one at Liverpool St Station isn’t it, Paul.
I had good beer there, too, though it was the first time I’d really noticed prices in London Spoons creeping towards a fiver.
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Martin, it’s all relative, and it depends whether you class a 1.3 mile, 30 minute walk as near. Matthew and I called in on our way back to Farringdon station, and Thameslink services back to London Bridge.
My prime reason was to use the “facilities”, and it was the Salcombe porter that influenced my decision to stay for a pint. The place was absolutely rammed, but then it was 5.30pm on a Friday afternoon.
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Ignore me Paul, it WAS Farringdon station I hopped to that Spoons on in 2022, the stations tend to blur into one and the Guide entry Spoons just rotate !
It was packed 2 years ago, and from memory more with tourists than City workers.
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The Spoons quality should be improving, they seem to have fewer beers on than in years gone by. If you only have 6 on in a pub with 12 handpumps, then either they haven’t been serving much, or they’re getting through individual casks quicker. Also notice that they seem to generally have more local beers available, so presumably spending less time in a supply chain.
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