389. Thu 12/4/18: The White House, Luton

Beer: Tring Tea Kettle Stout 4.7%

The ongoing shenanigans at the place I live has meant that I’m now a director of a company. The whole thing is absurd and the first meeting is upstairs at The White House. I meet the company secretary. He requests a pint of Abbott. Good man. I’m on coffee, like an idiot.

Once the meeting is over, I bid my… colleague(?) adieu, and have a proper pint myself.

Tring beer is usually very good, and I’ve been very keen on stouts and porters recently. With such heightened expectations, I found the Kettle Stout just about whelming.

Thursday afternoon at the JDWWH is laudably busy – impressive to a blue chip on the shoulder company director such as I – and many of the patrons seem to be enjoying a curry. Smells quite a bit – but being rather partial to a curry myself I took no offence whatsoever.

420. Mon 28/5/18: The White House, Luton

Beer: Jennings Snecklifter 5.1%

Sultry Bank Holiday weekend afternoon. Back from work (working on this) and the gym and looking to muster enthusiasm for a few beers, a curry and an early night. It’s too hot though; I’m too weighed down with gym baggage and camera.

The JDWWH is as it tends to be on days like these – the outside seating is packed and bawdy, it’s considerably quieter inside.

Inside there’s the usual family groups, groups of middle aged men, a few sad loners like me – the real topers down at the bottom bar. The beer is alright, the tables are sticky, I opt out of a second.

485. Fri 21/9/18: The White House, Luton

Beer: Exmoor Gold 4.5%

Around 5:30pm, and I was planning on getting the bus from Park Square to Markyate, to go to The Local micropub – and from there, using the Centrebus service, to Dunstable and back to Luton. There’s a £4.10 day ticket – I’d seen it advertised (see #457). Bargain. But… no, the driver informs, I couldn’t do that trip on a day ticket… I might be able to do it on a “Hip hop” ticket, let’s have a look… no, Markyate’s out of range. The driver is helpful and accommodating, eager to find me a ticket – but in the end can only suggest three singles totaling over £9. I’m also conscious that the queue behind is eager to pass the obstacle to their getting homeward bound that I’ve become. I thank the driver for his assistance, and tell him I’ll be giving the trip a miss. Next time – a simple return to Markyate…

Back in Luton – I meander somewhat aimlessly, get a pasty at Don Millers, and wander on to the White House.

 

Read previous reports on fluctuating feelings on the Wetherspoon estate, and the JDWWH in particular. It’s typically post-work busy here now – there clearly are still folk working in Luton town centre… they’re probably all LBC.

The service is pretty unexceptional, the beer is reasonably good. It’s a one pint visit – until I dig into my bag and pull out Boak and Bailey’s Gambrinus Waltz, the story of the rise and fall of Bavarian and Bohemian lager beer in Blighty from the late nineteenth century until the outbreak of the Great War. It’s an essay rather than a book – but a decent read. The White House, I’d suggest, mostly ‘cause one is usually here on one’s own, is a decent reading pub.

Anyway, that means it becomes a three pint visit, which allows plenty of time to finish the pamphlet.

389. Thu 12/4/18: The White House, Luton

Beer: Tring Tea Kettle Stout 4.7%

The ongoing shenanigans at the place I live has meant that I’m now a director of a company. The whole thing is absurd and the first meeting is upstairs at The White House. I meet the company secretary. He requests a pint of Abbott. Good man. I’m on coffee, like an idiot.

Once the meeting is over, I bid my… colleague(?) adieu, and have a proper pint myself.

Tring beer is usually very good, and I’ve been very keen on stouts and porters recently. With such heightened expectations, I found the Kettle Stout just about whelming.

Thursday afternoon at the JDWWH is laudably busy – impressive to a blue chip on the shoulder company director such as I – and many of the patrons seem to be enjoying a curry. Smells quite a bit – but being rather partial to a curry myself I took no offence whatsoever.

383a. Sat 31/3/18: The White House, Luton

Beer: Green Beacon Three Bolt 4.5%

Pre-Bear Club reading visit. The White House is pretty full and there's a palpable sense of low expectation. I shuffle through from the New Bedford Road side to the Old Bedford Road side before ordering what looks an interesting guest beer from Australia. It's nasty which, to be fair to 'Spoons, is a little unusual. I try and convince myself the vinegar taste is 'citrus notes' and stomach the foul brew.

Reading was ok. The White House has a very similar atmosphere to the Arndale; convenient, barn like and giving every impression of offering a huge choice. Which I suppose it does.

             

375. Wed 21/3/18: The White House, Luton

Beer: Sambrooks Flat White Stout 4.5%

Has the JDWWH had a post refurb makeover since my last visit? It seems somehow more warming and welcoming than usual. Maybe it’s just the unusually quiet and polite clientele at 05:30pm on a Wednesday.

The beer is delicious.

The tranquil mood is bludgeoned as Darren, a fellow we’ve known for thirty odd years arrives, and exuberantly takes us back to yesteryear: tales of acquaintances I’m not entirely sure we shared (“no… I’m sure I’d recognise him/her if I saw him/her”). Crazy days (NB: they weren’t that crazy, not for me). Darren’s still crazy. I’ve not changed in 25 years, he lies. He’s still in skinny fit jeans – and looking amazing.

Darren’s a force of nature, and his appearance smashes the air of quietly whimsical contemplation I try to maintain on the solo sneaky pint. He’s a lovely fella but, bloody hell…

On my way out Darren suggests we go out one night – “just you and me. We’ll f***ing smash it”. I’m naturally flattered/scared/confused/struck by awe and star.

5 Wed 1/3/17: The White House, Luton

Beer: Shepherd Neame Bishops Finger 5.0%

The WH were screening Man City v Huddersfield in the FA Cup (supporting, if not proving, the “they don’t screen Sky” theory). The place was half full, entirely soulless. The beer was well presented but seemed way too strong compared to the (way too weak) Grainstore at the Brickies earlier.

The photos taken outside the football ground didn’t inspire. They were taken in perpetual drizzle – and I’ve never really sussed out how to use the camera. We’ll see.

Anyway, the football went badly; according to the coverage afforded by my phone.

Town were 1-0 down early (as I saw thru the Brickies window on the way down), then 2-0 in the second half. Then it was 2-2. Then 2-3 to Oxford – at which point I left the pub.

I walked home, ipod unplugged, listening intently for equaliser elation; hearing nothing. On passing the Brickies I looked through the window and concluded that the Oxford players looked the happier in the immediate post-match pictures.

It wasn’t until I hit the junction of HTR and Havelock that I heard a vague chorus of “Que sera sera” from the 700 odd Oxford fans

Thereby, my match boycott photography project was nipped in the bud before the requirement to trudge around Wembley (hoping to snap a discarded boater).

106. Tue 30/5/17: The White House, Luton

Beer: Bowman Quiver Bitter 4.5%

I’d suggested that, having seen The Same Circles (motion picture) at The Bear – it would be best to discuss out somewhere else, away from both the director, producer and star of the film. My brother also had a bit part role, but I had to confess that I didn’t really like the film DESPITE some very good cinematography. Meanwhile Simon Cleary, as always, is a huge and fantastic presence… though, just maybe, not a screen one. I like him lots, and hugely admire his chutzpah. I didn’t like his debut movie feature very much.

The White House is near empty. There are rumours that a planned renovation of this JDW, which was so impressive when it opened – but has been looking bedraggled for a decade or more, will reduce the size. Other than pre-football matches, when it is still apparently wedged, this would seem a reasonable idea.

254 Wed 22/11/17: The White House, Luton

Beer: Titanic Plum Porter 4.9%

Hoorah - back in Luton. After fruitless visit to gym (forgot shorts and/or t-shirt), I’m back into the JDWWH, and Titanic Plum Porter.

On returning from foreign climes my notes tend to take on the tone Mr Benn was wont to employ when finding himself, post adventure, back in Festive Road: they’ll suggest at contentment at being back at home and then get sentimental over a souvenir found in my pocket. In this case, back in Luton, the Polish family to my right are chatting away quite happily – while the group of lads over the way are talking football, generally genially but swearing away oblivious to the families sat around them.

And, from my pocket, a token procured from U Pinkasů in the centre of Prague: made up to resemble a 1 Kreuzer coin, dated 1843 – the year the pub opened (presumably); and not, as would’ve been handier at the bar back in Blighty, a £2 coin.

The White House has gone into Christmas overkill mode already, with more than a month to go.

Beer is excellent – and excellent without being Pilsner Urquell, which is lovely.

169 Fri 220917: White House, Luton

Beer: Kelham Island Pale Rider 5.2%

It’s ridiculously busy at work, and they’ve sanctioned overtime (without sanctioning additional overtime rates), so I’m going into work as early as possible on Saturday morning - and using the time accrued to take the day before we fly out to Prague off.

With that in mind, and after forty minutes in the gymnasium, I head for a few sneaky pints at the JDWWH. Again, on me tod, I find this perfectly acceptable. The very early evening clientele seem somehow less desperate than those stuck here later on. And where else in town are you going to get a pint of Kelham Island?

         

Actually I wasn’t too impressed with the beer, bitter to the point of astringency, but (and as there wasn’t much else as an alternative) the second went down better. I ponder over whether or not to get a curry in – and decide against it. I start reading the latest Boak and Bailey tome – but the beer is strong, and I don’t get much further than the first chapter.

End up having three, get some emergency corner shop beer – and home to watch Game of Thrones.

Early night – I’m at work for 07:30, and leave at 11:30. After that, finding myself too late to go home and too early to go the pre-match pub, I flounder around for a couple of hours… put a bet on… wander round the Arndale looking for eats… eventually have a Don Millers bacon bap. I really wanted a sausage bap, but they only had one sausage left. At approx 13:25 I headed toward L’Chavel Noir dans l’rue Hastings.