15th January 2020 And so, it begins, five days in the South-West, whatever that is, on a road trip with my sister Julie. It’s not quite On The Road, but there is a high speed blow-out on the M5, fiddles and mind-altering quantities of Draught Bass. Just not at the same time. My niece Patricia… Continue reading WANSWELL – SALMON, SQUID RINGS & PHEASANT TAILS
GOODNIGHT, RAMSGATE – MIXING RHUBARB CIDER WITH SHIPYARD IPA
12th/13th January 2020 Today’s cover star is Crystal, seen enjoying Ramsgate hospitality the night before her trip back to the States with Nick. After Arthur Brown and rhubarb cider we took a head-clearing stroll along the bay back to our digs. (Harold House, £32). No, I hadn’t had tea yet. And I’d just spent three… Continue reading GOODNIGHT, RAMSGATE – MIXING RHUBARB CIDER WITH SHIPYARD IPA
TOP 100 PUBS – ARTILLERY ARMS, RAMSGATE
12th January 2020 I need to get a move on. 28 pubs from the West Country to come, two of them retiredmartin Top 10 entries. But first a second trip to Ramsgate in five days, leaving me to stare longingly at the sole gap on the Kent map at Charcott. Wherever that is. I’d popped… Continue reading TOP 100 PUBS – ARTILLERY ARMS, RAMSGATE
SUNSET OVER WHITSTABLE
12th January 2020 If Whitstable was in Suffolk I’d hate it and make rude pashmina jokes about the wrong sort of Joules. Last time here I did a couple of micropubs whose owners convinced of their sides chances in the last cup match. West Ham beat Man United but the Black Dog and Handsome Sam… Continue reading SUNSET OVER WHITSTABLE
SHEER JOY ON SHEPPEY
12th January 2020 That top image, the one that appears on Twitter, is what’s called click bait. Nothing to do with the post but it makes you go “Oooh, I remember Toby“. You’ve had Watneys, Ind Coope and Toby in quick succession; expect more blasts from the past like Cloudwater and Lost and Grounded soon.… Continue reading SHEER JOY ON SHEPPEY
RED KENT
12th January 2020 Back once again with a Kent micropub, which sounds like a line from Fat Boy Slim, one of the few English music legends NOT from Dartford. And I don’t JUST mean Pete Tong. I don’t think Marx was actually born in Dartford, but there’s plenty of evidence of Dartford’s history of peasant’s… Continue reading RED KENT
“PADDY HASN’T BEEN IN FOR TWO DAYS”
9th January 2020 None* of the Surrey GBG entries will appear in my long-delayed book, “101 places every American should embarrass themselves in“. But they’re certainly more picturesque than the “Tap & Turtle” or “Hop Cellar“, and often look like free house even when, as with the Barley Mow in West Horsley. they’re owned by… Continue reading “PADDY HASN’T BEEN IN FOR TWO DAYS”
GREAT BOOKHAM – WISH YOU WERE HERE
9th January 2020 Surrey. Underrated county, overrated beer, BRAPA-unfriendly pubs in waiting. Fourteen new entries in GBG 20, the usual mix of Michelin stars, micros and posh mummies and daddies. Great Bookham is a pleasant but safe bit of suburbia next to the mighty Leatherhead, but it does have Box Hill and a string of… Continue reading GREAT BOOKHAM – WISH YOU WERE HERE
TONBRIDGE NOT TUNBRIDGE
8th January 2020 Yes, January 8th was a long day. It ended, as all good things must, ten miles away from my in-laws in west Kent, a few yards from where Mrs RM has been turning computers on and off in Sevenoaks. Sevenoaks is nearly a GBG-free town this year. Just the venerable Anchor, a… Continue reading TONBRIDGE NOT TUNBRIDGE
NO SOLITUDE IN CLIFTONVILLE
8th January 2020 More posts brought to you under “contractual negotiations” as I’d never choose to tick micropubs in Thanet for a living, would I ? Thanet though, always worth a visit. I’d walked past Banks when I was in Cliftonville (not the Belfast one) last time out and assumed it was a trendy bar.… Continue reading NO SOLITUDE IN CLIFTONVILLE
