August 2025. Birmingham.
I’m currently in a field, in Wiltshire (or possibly Dorset) drinking Verdant murk with James, while Mrs RM guards the house.
She doesn’t get the weird alt-folk and craft cans, but she does get WiFi. I don’t.
So these next few posts may be minimal.
But you don’t need to actually say much about the Craven Arms, 30 seconds walk from our Birmingham hotel.
I’d been back 3 hours, but at 10pm I suddenly decided I was wasting my life in a hotel room with a classic pub yards away.
In fact, I don’t think I’d been here since before it became a Black Country Ales pub.
“Pint of Pig please”. Nice alliteration I thought.
“Pig ! Pig ! Give it some respect”
The Guvnor was an old school gem, chatting to Italian beer tourists from Modena ahead of GBBF, and the pub was a wonderfully cosy place to enjoy Pig on the Wall in top form.
The next day Mrs RM would walk past and go “Cor ! That’s gorgeous”.
But what’s inside is even better.
retiredmartin 
I went to BCA’s Lichfield pub on Sunday but it doesn’t look as if it’ll be open for a few weeks.
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Is that an existing pub they’ve taken over?
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Yes, originally the Bridge Tavern, more recently Bitter Suite.
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Yes, the Bridge Tavern, more recently Bitter Suite.
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Went for a return visit to BCA’s Unicorn in Ludlow last night, but Thursday night is ‘cheese and crackers night’, and it was absolutely rammed. It was a blessing in disguise as I discovered the rather lovely Old Street Tavern at the top of town.
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