retiredmartin

July 2025. Cambridge.

Another consequence of this year’s deaths and probate dramas has been a need to visit, in person, more Cambridge banks and financial institutions this year than I had in the previous 30.

But every trip to Cambridge Building Society prompts you to explore a bit, and realise how little the city has changed in 3 decades.

Head past the round church and a (rare) burst of commercial timber next to the Mitre,

then turn right up Portugal Place, one of our most bucolic quarters.

I constantly rate the Maypole in the top 3 in town,

a plainish Tolly pub for many years before the long-running Castiglione family stuck on lots of pumps without sacrificing any quality.

Trad seating, trad Italian food, trad hours which mean I’ve got 20 minutes to drink my pint before they close for a mid afternoon break (to the bewilderment of the tourists who arrive as I leave).

The cask is great, but it was an Untappd check-in for a Pastore tap that wasn’t a sour that drew me in.

Not only that, but the “other” Waterbeach brewery have also made a house Italian Pilsner for the pub, but it’s that Fog on the Cam hazy pale that’s the draw.

Fog/murk, murk/fog, all the same, surely.

It’s a tasty, refreshing pint, though perhaps not that distinctive. What we really want from Pastore is a tomato gose. Well, I do, not sure Mrs RM agrees.