retiredmartin

June 2026. Lytham (not St Annes).

An afternoon in Lytham (not St Annes, for a change) to meet up with Blackpool Jane on her blogging return and swap World Cup stickers with Lee.

You remember Lytham ? The one with the windmill and the 1940s obssession ?

“Leafy Lytham” they call it, which seems to attract the tourists.

What is in those huge suitcases ? Mrs RM can carry her entire wardrobe around in one small bag.

It’s always best to pace yourself, especially in a seaside town,

so we started off at the bar with Serbian wine and strong pastry stouts.

NIKO’s bar in Preston had pretty much wiped us out a couple of years ago, and draught Stroopwafel (again!) and Sureshot from the can were not the light start we’d planned.

NIKO’s second bar had only been open a few months, but judging by the folk who followed us in it was attracting Lytham’s moneyed crowd, the sort who pay £20 for a tasting tray of Serbian marmalade wine.

It’s a gastronomic sort of town, from the cheese,

to the giant cookies,

and I could see the appeal to Jane as we met her in the Hop House, a genuine pre-emptive tick.

Though, honestly, I must have done a Lancashire micropub called Hop House at least a dozen times already. Or was that Hop Shop ?

Plain but cosy, micro but spacious, ’80s soundtrack of “Take on Me” and “Walking on Sunshine” (Katrina not Eddy), and an astonishingly bitter Clan War from local Silent Mill Brewery (3.5). And a decent low ABV option.

A good place to chat with Lee and Jane about AI, and blogs, and the Balkans.

Good enough to stay for a second. But really, Lytham is all about the Taps.

Multiple award winner (despite Greene King ownership), 30 years in the GBG,

and still a Dizzy Blonde stronghold.

Just as in 2019, it was marvellous (4) And while this is a busy pub, popular with all ages, it’s far from a cask-dominated one so the quality isn’t a given.

A beer score of 4 (Very Good) means you MUST stay for another, of course, so I had a Greene King IPA.

It’s amazing how good the Boring Brown Bitters can taste when the pubs look after their beer.