14th April 2023. The last pub from the Big Brum Bender (aka curated Birmingham beer exploratory), as we called it quits after seven eight pubs at the crafty Rock and Roll Brewhouse. It’s the rule on these Proper Pub Days Out that everyone does ALL the pubs, unless it’s a shisha bar selling Jamaican tonic… Continue reading ROCK & ROLL, YEAH !
Tag: Birmingham
CURRY LADS IN THE HEN & CHICKENS
14th April 2023. The Bucolic Brum Bender continued into the Jewellery Quarter, and a genuine pre-emptive tick at the Hen & Chickens. Despite the rain, I joined Kentish Paul in a leisurely pace that allowed us to take in the beauty of the industrial quarter, which features a “Top 500 trees growing out of buildings”… Continue reading CURRY LADS IN THE HEN & CHICKENS
TOP 100 PUBS – THE BULL, BIRMINGHAM
14th April 2023. After the impromptu 16.5% Jamaican tonic wine (and it’s not often you can write that) I wasn’t really bothered about the Bull. I’d been before, knew it was a classic “country pub in the city” style place, but on days like this you want to stick to the new, surely < Far… Continue reading TOP 100 PUBS – THE BULL, BIRMINGHAM
BIRMINGHAM PUB CRAWL TEMPORARILY DERAILED BY JAMAICAN TONIC WINE AT THE SHISHA BAR
14th April 2023. Even in 2023, “D” is followed by “E”, and so it was that we left the Bartons Arms to brave the rain on the way to the Jewellery Quarter. Except that Life After Football had different ideas. “We should pop in the Steak House, proper Brum bar” he said, convinced we’d passed… Continue reading BIRMINGHAM PUB CRAWL TEMPORARILY DERAILED BY JAMAICAN TONIC WINE AT THE SHISHA BAR
The one where Retired Martin goes to the Barton(s) Arms and takes more pictures of the Visitors’ Book than the Heritage Pub.
14th April 2023. The centrepiece of our Big Brum Bender was NOT, as you might have thought, the trophy room at Villa Park, but rather a recently re-opened heritage pub gem a few yards away. Shamefully, I’d popped in here last for an emergency comfort break, and owed it some belated custom. The Bartons Arms… Continue reading The one where Retired Martin goes to the Barton(s) Arms and takes more pictures of the Visitors’ Book than the Heritage Pub.
THE RETURN OF DAVENPORTS, THE RENAISSANCE OF MILD
April 14th 2023. Next up, a genuine pre-emptive tick just north of Snow Hill. Not that I believe in that GBG ticking nonsense anymore, of course. Funny how I’d never heard of the Queens Head , (formerly the Queen’s Head, What Pub helpfully tells us, though oddly there’s an apostrophe on the sign), as you’d… Continue reading THE RETURN OF DAVENPORTS, THE RENAISSANCE OF MILD
LUNCHTIME DRINKING NOT (QUITE) DEAD YET
14th April 2023. Prop Up The Bar, aka Oxford Nick, has finally posted on the Brum Bender (here). I’m delighted he’s blogged on the day, as I can nick his best lines and refer to the “Davenports Smut” without actually putting the photos on here. Nick even did his own map, but I’ll stick with… Continue reading LUNCHTIME DRINKING NOT (QUITE) DEAD YET
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO STAFFORD’S PAUL MUDGE
Yes ! A rare photo of a teenage Paul back in the day when CAMRA was a young person’s game. A pint for guessing the beer, It’s fifty (50) years today since Paul Mudge was legally able to drink and I would conservatively estimate he’s saved 32,369 pubs since then. I’m not sure Penkridge would… Continue reading HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO STAFFORD’S PAUL MUDGE
A GOLDEN GLOW IN THE WELLINGTON
20th March 2023. If I was really going to get full value from my rail ticket(s) to Brum that Monday I’d have visited the wonderful Art Gallery, but as you’ll know it’s closed for a while, and I’d had liver and onions so a Balti in Sparkbrook wasn’t an option, either. So a last pub… Continue reading A GOLDEN GLOW IN THE WELLINGTON
NEW SPOONS ON WEDNESDAY
18th January 2023. I’d always targeted one new Beer Guide entry in Birmingham and a second, irritating one in Tamworth. But I also wanted a bit of Brummie culture in the Museum and Art Gallery (having narrowly missed the exhibition on the city’s musical heritage, Dexy’s. Stephen “Tin Tin” Duffy et al.; SHUT ! Re-opening… Continue reading NEW SPOONS ON WEDNESDAY