432b. Fri 22/6/18: Thomson’s Bar, Edinburgh

Beer: Stewart Brewing Jack Back 3.7%

The first bar we hit after arriving in Edinburgh for a boozy long weekend with some old friends. Hence, I start with a friendly session beer. It's Friday afternoon and the bar's not that busy. This bar was chosen from the CAMRA Good Beer Guide app on my phone. It's rather a low key start to proceedings (but it certainly picked up the pace as the weekend progressed). We are meeting a friend of Will's later who lives in Edinburgh for a meal at the oldest curry house in the capital. More of the divine Cath and her local guide skills later.

Most of the talk is about our respective trips down here (James and I flew from Luton, Will the train from Manchester). Also about how much we think Steve will have changed (it turns out not much). He is arriving tomorrow from Glasgow and we haven't seen him for 25 years.

As the curry house is a bit of a walk away, we have the one pint here and head off.

196. Thu 5/10/17: Restaurante Ibericos, Alicante

Beer: Alhambra 5%

On the same street at Sento, this place has pretentions of being a restaurant rather than a bar; but they have a couple of bar stools at the window. We sit on them and, eventually, get served (with beer and delicate tomato and anchovy toastie tapas). The beer is served in oversized wine glasses.

It's ok here, but the bar inside is very long – curving round into a restaurant where far more important customers apparently need attending too. Anyway, we very rarely see, let alone catch the eye, of the bar staff so we sup up and move on.

 

245. Sun 19/11/17: U Medvícků, Prague

Beer: Old Gott 5.2% 

After U Fleků it’s good to get to the slightly less cynical tourist trap that is U Medvícků. That said, at least at U Fleků there’s always somewhere to sit. U Medvícků is huge, and largely empty (it’s mid-afternoon), and every table appears to be reserved. There are reserved signs all over Prague – but most give some idea of time, allowing you to sit at a table and enjoy a couple of drinks if the reservation starts in an hour or so's time. The U Medvícků reserved signs only have one word on them. We visit the pub a few times this trip – and every time we’ve been standing outside the brewery bar, drinks on the barrel.

Conversation this time around revolves around how long we’re going to last into early/mid evening at the current rate of imbibing.

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.

323. Mon 12/3/18: Casa Lazo, Cádiz

Beer: Cruzcampo 5.0%

From the market environs we carry on in a north easterly direction, at a tangent to our digs; passing a cinema (where we decide against seeing a film). We end up outside Casa Lazo, which appears to be more porcine restaurant than pub. Looking in, though, there is a bar area – so we venture inside.

It’s a thriving little place: the clientele this afternoon seem almost entirely made up of one or two extended families (the youngest members of which are far too noisy).

The bar seems to be trying very hard with its tapas, but nobody seems too interested. We get some complimentary olives, which does for us.

432. Sun 17/6/18: The Strathmore Arms, St Paul’s Walden, Hitchin

Beer: Haresfoot Hoppiness 5%

It’s me birthday, so get to do something a little unusual – and that involves firing up whichever GBG application works on my device, to find a pub we’ve not been to before.

Tow Steph’s folks along for the ride. Roy’s driving and, out in the wilds at the back of the airport, The Strathmore Arms isn’t an easy place to find. The satnav gets us there eventually.

It’s a great place: a ramshackle old local in the middle of nowhere (as far as we’re concerned).

There’s a few old boys sat at the bar. One (wearing an Escape to Victory TOFFs shirt) has a couple of springers – which are set upon by Steph’s Mum. The young dog is very friendly, the older bitch, not so much.

On the bar, on a large serving plate, under cellophane are a few remaining large samosas – selling for £1.30 a pop.

Anyway, yes, as I’ve suggested – this is a wonderfully chaotic place. One gets the feeling these kind of pubs used to be far more the norm, even in town centres, than they are now. Pubs surely benefit from being allowed (and/or left alone) to take on the idiosyncratic character of their landlords and patrons… I can’t really say, on an isolated visit; but the ambience here seems like a breath of fresh air.

We sit round the corner, in a room barely furnished with church pews. I notice a nearby (dusty old) bookcase, piled upon which are a collection of Good Beer Guides going back to 1976. I thumb through a few; the books used to be a lot thinner, the descriptions extremely brief, the artwork often appalling. In terms of Luton pubs, The Brickies wasn’t listed until 1996 and, before then, The Gardeners Call was a 1980s mainstay.

66. Sunday 160417: Enoteca El Arena, Mercado de Arenal, Seville

Beer: Cruzcampo 5%

Just round the corner from the Meeting Point (see no.65), but in the central aisle of the market; where the natural light streams in to illuminate the Rick Stein endorsed fish restaurant and this – the only other bar that’s open. It’s more wine than beer centric; bottled Cruzcampo the only concession to cerveza, but punters can sit up at the bar - which is a bonus.

On the little telly in the corner they’re showing bullfighting highlights. It’s fascinating and appalling in unequal measure. I am impressed by the Spanish peoples’ love affair with it, but the more I see (particularly the gory finales) the more bemusement/distaste increases and empathy fades.