ROCK & ROLL, YEAH !

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 !

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

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

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