retiredmartin

December 2024. Northstowe. Cambridgeshire.

Not too long till the end-of-year awards, but best never be too presumptuous and assume you’ll last till midnight, eh ?

Despite what I just told you about declaring for 2024, Mrs RM was desperate for a trip out to an embryonic scruffy New Town, but NOT Waterbeach.

Northstowe, 20 minutes from Cambridge on the guided bus, has been a concept in progress for most of my adult life, and all I’ll say is I hope it looks better when it’s finished.

20,000 homes planned, barely a tenth occupied, a sea of scrubland with only a primary school and “pop-up” community centre as meagre facilities.

I expect they’ll get a chain diner like the Marston’s places down the A428 at Cambourne, which is a much better New Town (transport apart) but for now they’ve somehow acquired a fancy craft bar next to the tram stop (confusingly labelled Longstanton).

I only noticed the Tap existed when I did one of those Untappd map searches; there’s no cask so it’s not popping up on the CAMRA app any time soon.

Not that a lack of real ale has stopped entries in Belfast and Elsecar, and in the spirit of Tim Webb I have to day I don’t mind CAMRA recognising keg (without the key) bars, as long as they do it well.

I wasn’t sure the Tap did it that well; weaker (well, sub-6%) stuff from Siren and Duration a bit meh, and a 10% triple IPA from Wylam plain disappointing.

But Mrs RM loved the layout on 2 levels, and the coffee and cake, and the joy in the shrieking friends reunions taking place on benches around us. Rather like that Unit 1 in Kent without the silly hand pumps.

And so did I. The fried chicken and chips from a hut outside was unexpectedly superb, washing down a third of Vault City’s DDF Churros Imperial Stout, at £22.05 a the most expensive (notional) pint of the year.

Get it in GBG32 and make Simon drink a pint of it to complete the Beer Guide. It’s what he’d want.