The Shire

 It was time to head northwest (from Eastbourne's perspective, anyhow).

The last couple of visits have been distinctly chilly meaning that we haven't really ventured very far and, when we do, we wanted to be in places that were pretty cosy...or at least could do an approximation.

This time, we arrived in sunshine on Thursday - not exactly warm but at least not freezing.

We don't even have to discuss the first venue - 4 hours of travel on us means we want to be in familiar surroundings where we absolutely know that the beer will be tasty and the staff delightful.

Our train was 30 mins late but we were still in the Barley Mow by 4.30pm and already it was pretty busy.  Thankfully, "our" table was free and suddenly all was right with the world.

By the time of the second pint, people had been coming in and joining a burgeoning crowd/queue at the bar. Eventually I decided I needed to bite the bullet and join them.  The boy timed how long it took for me to come back with beer:  6 minutes.

Actually, that time belies how well the bar staff were running the backlog.  No matter where around the bar you were, I could detect no queue-jumping whatsoever.  A sure sign of excellent bar staff and, to be fair, a pretty good set of punters.  So many times here we've seen huge groups of after-workers who order and buy one drink at a time  and - just for extra annoyance - throw in the odd coffee order or dither in their choices.

We had thought about eating there but, neither of us fancied it in the end so it was back via Sainsbury's with some pasta, pesto, tomatoes and (trashy) garlic bread - and it was as good a way to end the evening as any.

Friday the weather was wet all day.  But as we were mainly planning to go to Moor - it's no great hardship.

Today, it's bright and sunny and we're meeting friends at the Wiper and True new taproom.  Probably too cold to sit outside, but it won't be long until we will.  I'm quite looking forward to the stroll over there in dry, pleasant spring weather.

The Next Generation

 About 10 days ago, I'd arranged an "awayday" or, planning session, for the team of folk that will be responsible for delivering the bulk of our work for the next year.

It was seriously hard to find a place that was affordable, easy to get to, and allowed for a decent lunch break in the middle of the day.

Also, I really didn't want the meeting itself to be in a pub - somehow, it didn't give the right sort of vibe for me.  There was more than one joke about this - I'm cool with it.

The whole team have a tendency towards introversion and so rather than force a communal lunch on people who had already been cooped up in a room together I suggested I'd be going to the only place nearby that would do an OK lunch - The Marine pub.  I said anyone was welcome to join me.

So...we all went to the pub together.

It's a pub of last resort for me but the service was lovely, the food good and not too expensive and there was a beer option for anyone who wanted it (sparkling water for me).

At the end of the meeting around 4pm I had planned to meet the Best Beer Buddy for a de-compressing quiet beer somewhere.  However, the team had other ideas.  It would have been churlish to say no, so we all (bar one who was knackered) walked around to Beerarama and BBB met us there.

It was jolly and collegiate and everything you want from an after-work beer, to be honest.  It was particularly nice to see the younger members of the group trying different things - and a more accustomed cider drinker trying an NEIPA, declaring delicious and switching to it on the next round.

Then this week, we were planning to meet a pal (and founder of TechResort) for a drink and a chat and because he commutes via train, we agreed to meet in Ninkasi.  We walked in to find not only him - but two of the "Elves" (as we call them).  Initially a bit bemused because we thought they must have come together, we learned that the Elves had been in the bar when A arrived so we ended up drinking beer together for a couple of hours.

I'm hopeful that a love of beer and some of the good places to drink it isn't my most important legacy with the young people of Eastbourne but it's kinda nice to know that good independent bars in the town get regular support from the youngsters who grew up there.  It's their trade that will sustain the places into the future.

 

Saturday Afternoon in the Pub

 We have fairly establish (ok, entrenched) habits about when and where we go for our beer.

But yesterday, we varied that a bit.  Himself needed to pop into work so I did a bit of painting in the kitchen, made a packed lunch and joined him later.

We listened to the first Six-Nations match of the day and then, around half time we decided to repair to the pub.

For the first time in ages, we thought we'd try the Eagle - it has sports on all screens and we quite fancied watching the second half with a beer.

Now, in the last few years we've steered clear because the beer has been lacklustre to say the least but we figured we'd give it a chance.

As it happened, they had decent Three Acre IPA on.

Mind you, I got a bit of a shock when I paid because the Eagle has always been the cheapest of the licensee's pubs in town.

Two pints was £10.40!

Still, it was in really good nick, we had a comfy (and warm) seat in the pub with a good view of the rugby.

So we stayed. And stayed, eventually carrying on to watch most of the second (England/France) game.

It wasn't particularly late when we finished so we decided to get something a bit more dark and strong so strolled around to Bottle Grove.

We agreed that we'd really enjoyed the Eagle - which took us both by surprise, to be honest.

Are likely to go back -yes, probably but mainly for the sport + beer combo.

Incidentally, I've no real gripe with the price of the beer - it's what cask should be costing, it was just a surprise at that particular place.

Busy, busy, busy

 We've been musing, of late, about the "crisis in pubs" news that keeps cropping up.

The fact that so many pubs are closing at the moment is really sad and more so when it's due to money-grabbing pubCo organisations who are just selling for the real estate.

But is there really a crisis in the licensed trade?

I know that we're a particular class and age of drinker and that we're really particular about what we drink but, almost without exception, the places we generally drink have been busy.  Really busy.

Even in January, the usual gloom and doom "everyone is doing dry January" time - place were heaving.  True enough, a lot of people were drink low/no alcohol beers but the places themselves were absolutely not empty.

We drink pretty much any day of the week in pubs/taprooms, etc

We also drink early - we tend to go for our beer around 4.30pm and leave again by about 7pm.  But, so it seems, does everyone else!

In Bristol it's really noticeable but even in Eastbourne, the places we go aren't usually empty.

Since we arrived in Bristol we've been to:

Monday - BarleyMow, arrived at 4.30pm - most seats taken by about 5.30pm

Tuesday -  4.45pm Tried the Kings Head - rammed, went to Cornubia:  Hugely busy, people sitting outside, high stools only seating available and we nabbed the last two.  Still busy when we left after 7pm.

Wednesday - Marthas - 5pm.  Very busy - only seats on the communal table available.  Still busy when we left.

Thursday - Royal Oak.  Not very busy until a group of students (ladies' rugby team, possibly) turned up.  About 15 or so of them.  This pub was the outlier.

Friday - Moor Brewery Tap.  Pretty busy by the time we arrive around 5pm, got busier and then was still busy when we left.

Saturday - BarleyMow, arrived at 5pm and not a seat to be had initially, people standing, people sitting outside.  We sneaked a "BasketMakers" seat without too much difficulty.  Still busy when we left at 7.00pm

He and I flit between irritated that our favourite places are no longer quiet at the times we used to like to go there and delighted that these great places are seemingly so healthy.  Lets hope their balance sheets show the same thing.

I come back to the thought, even though it could be a bit uncharitable, that good places, which are well run seem to be sustaining their trade.  Other than property sell off motivations - is it the less good places that are closing?

I think the problems besetting breweries are somewhat different.  These are less about just the trading and more about the business model and the capital investment that has to be managed.  Marthas tell us that their tiny brewery is doing better than expected; Moor tells us that they own their building and kit and so aren't at the mercy of rent rises, etc.

I'm not saying it's easy to run a beer business - but I also don't think that it isn't possible to run a good one at the moment.

In Which We Learn...

 ...that some places are better to go to, rather than drink in.

We were keen to have a bit of a walk.  The boy was keen for greenery.  The weather looked pretty good.

Obviously, we like to build a pub visit in too.

As a change, we got the train to Avoncliffe and walked along the canal to Bradford on Avon.  I'd checked the pubs and a few sounded promising.

The tow-path stroll is pleasant and unchallenging (esp for woman with still-recovering knee), there was some pleasant tweetery by the local birds.

It's only a couple of miles and we were soon in Bradford.  We took the opportunity to look inside the wonderful tithe barn and strolled around the town.

By the time my knee was starting to complain, it was still only about 3.30pm.  I was hopeful for an initial stop and a beer but what with the micropub not opening until 6pm and the other pubs not really appealing once we looked at them (one a bit posh, one a bit rough, one a bit "Greene King") we decided that Bradford still isn't really a drinking place for us.

Instead, we decided that calling in on the Royal Oak in Oldfield Park was a reasonable plan instead.  With 45 mins until the train we went to the Three Horseshoes - which is very near the station.  It is a bit rough and ready but the beer was properly kept, if not terribly exciting.

The train was on time and we were soon in the Royal Oak - which is quiet and none too warm but the beer is good and the staff delightful.  The train back to Temple Meads was also on time which makes the journey painless and pleasant.

So - 10 years after the last time we went there, we have once again come to the conclusion that the walk there and around is definitely better than the drinking - perhaps we'll remember not to bother to try and opt straight for the Royal Oak instead.

Tonight we'll be off to Moor.  Tomorrow, who knows?

Welcome Back

 We walked out to Easton to restock on spice provisions.  Obviously, SweetMart is the obvious place to do this.  It's a couple of miles' walk there but that's an added benefit of the place.

After filling our bag with poppadoms, creamed coconut, rice, lentils and spices we repaired to the Greenbank pub to recover.

It's a really interesting pub.  It pretty much manages to pull off a brilliant trick of simultaneously being cafe, pub and social/community hub.  

They had 4 cask and 3 keg local beers available and a short but interesting little menu from the kitchen (pizza, burgers, casserole, etc).  We've eaten there before and the food was good, if not amazing.

The beers don't set the world alight in terms of range or novelty but what we had was good, cool and well kept.

We watched with interest the wide range of people in the place - from parents with kids, to someone working at one of the tables - to us.

We arrived about 4.15 and it was already buzzing - not bad for a January Thursday.

I've no doubt that we'd be reasonably happy were it very local to us and we'd kill for somewhere that interesting in Eastbourne but, neither of us think there would really be the appetite for it there.

Still - well done the team that have taken it over.  It's a lovely model for a pub.

After two pints we decided to head home and perhaps call in at the Assembly for a pizza if it looked promising.  So we struck out back down St Marks Road.  We discovered that G Brothers is now doing eat-in for their fab pizzas (their website indiciated they were take out only).  It would have been rude not to...

They didn't have keg beer on but they did have a fridge full of canned local beer.  

It was lovely being back in this quirky place and even better to see the stream of orders and callers being serviced.  We weren't the only people eating in, either.

This is another place that pulls off an excellent trick of being more than one thing to maximise it's appeal.

If I needed to buy a house in Easton, I'd be able do so knowing that the local amenities would readily available, and provided by fantastic independent traders.

Bravo!

New Year, New Worries

 Here we are, the beginning of another year.

The cost of living crisis is biting hard - not just for the worst off, but for people and businesses who were doing OK.

The latter part of 2022 saw the closure of two local breweries and, undoubtedly, there will be more before the summer.

We've chatted to a couple of the other small breweries that know us quite well.  Moor said it'll be hard but they have a business model that's allowing them to weather things at the moment.

Martha's is a very different animal - a personal passion project for a small number of people - but they feel reasonably confident just now.

My guess is that the likes of Bristol Beer Factory and Arbor will also be able to cope but there are others who I think are in peril - and especially small bottle/tap shops.

As always, we won't be observing any sort of "dry" January.  Our behaviour will be mostly unchanged, we rarely drink seriously large amounts, and rarely drink nothing - but that's us.  Whilst I hate the moralising "dry january" messages, I equally hate the belittling of anyone who doesn't drink - either by choice, or by necessity.

Whilst we fairly regularly do work meetings in an independent drinking establishment - there are various reasons why we pick particular places - and it's usually based on the fact they have a range of non-alcohol drinks that people actually enjoy drinking.  This means it works for all the people at the gathering and we're still managing to support some of our small local businesses without making anyone feel like alcohol is the only option. (I made this edit after a post by another blogger I follow who feels he needs a beer break without the added guilt of knowing that pubs and breweries have a tough time at this time of year).

We'll have lots of things to do on our house once the building work has finished and, hopefully, a lovely new space to enjoy - nevertheless, we've already pledged between ourselves that we'll make the effort to keep going to the pub and buying beers directly from breweries.  Also, to make sure we eat out at our favourite restaurants because resorts in January can be a pretty bleak place.

Good luck everyone - we're all going to need it.