Traditional pubs appreciation

Nothing better than kicking back with a pint or two at your local, that hasn't been done up to all and sundry, maintains its traditional looks, and serves food. So many trendy pubs out there I feel have lost the plot on what makes a good drinking and dining experience. It's not about making everything modern and plastic!

I'm mainly talking about the dining side though - love a bit of food served. Today had Homemade Pork & Apple Pie with Chips, with two 1/2 IPA's.

Anyone else have a love for traditional pubs?

We spend a lot of time in some lovely country pubs...best one near me is the Old Oak Inn at Horseley Woodhouse....for beer you can't go wrong, Fri/Sat/Sun they open the second 'stable' bar and have 10 beers on in there plus 10 on the main bar....and they are almost always excellent, and nothing less.

A few more too we love...the Thorn Tree Inn at Waingroves, and the Dew Drop Inn in Ilkeston, which is a proper oldskool pub in a victorian building. crazy place.

If you couldn't care less what kind of ale you get (I'm a pit of a snob..or wanker to some people I guess...and obvious crap like Old Peculiar, Adnams, Directors courage, Black Sheep and ANYTHING by Greeneking except the Abbot ale Reserve are utter gash to me)...oh yes, where was I....if you couldn't care less what ale you had there are 2 fantastic pubs in the village I used to live in, Stanton by Dale...both nice country pubs but ruined by their boring beer...

Anyway...kind of went off on one there...I think I'm just letting off steam over all after fecking about with a hard drive crash for a week...I sorted it and then this morning it went again, so there's a more serious issue at hand than what I first thought...

So Mick, before I move to either Thailand, Costa Rica or Dominica (we haven;t decided which one yet), you need to stay up here some time and I'll take you an a tour of some lovely pubs out in the sticks (Alison will drive us I hope :P )

We spend a lot of time in some lovely country pubs...best one near me is the Old Oak Inn at Horseley Woodhouse....for beer you can't go wrong, Fri/Sat/Sun they open the second 'stable' bar and have 10 beers on in there plus 10 on the main bar....and they are almost always excellent, and nothing less.

In Nottingham Chris?

A few more too we love...the Thorn Tree Inn at Waingroves, and the Dew Drop Inn in Ilkeston, which is a proper oldskool pub in a victorian building. crazy place.

If you couldn't care less what kind of ale you get (I'm a pit of a snob..or wanker to some people I guess

No

...and obvious crap like Old Peculiar, Adnams, Directors courage, Black Sheep and ANYTHING by Greeneking except the Abbot ale Reserve are utter gash to me)...oh yes, where was I....if you couldn't care less what ale you had there are 2 fantastic pubs in the village I used to live in, Stanton by Dale...both nice country pubs but ruined by their boring beer...

In Oxford the regular beers we have in pubs are Carlsberg, Tuborg, and San Miguel. San Miguel I'll have if nothing else seems right off the ale list. Old Peculiar and Black Sheep I've tried, neither I went much on to be honest. Old Speckled Hen is better as is Isis Pale. The King's Shipment is another good one, I'm sure that's what it's called. I get these in the pub opposite my flat when I'm in Oxford - a place called The Star. It's a bit trendy done out for my liking but has good presence and not too much gobshite presence either.

Anyway...kind of went off on one there...I think I'm just letting off steam over all after fecking about with a hard drive crash for a week...I sorted it and then this morning it went again, so there's a more serious issue at hand than what I first thought...

There there I know how that is. I've had 2 externals shortcircuit on me in 7 years. Nowadays I keep everything backed up on DVDs, Mp3 discs or my Cowon.

So Mick, before I move to either Thailand, Costa Rica or Dominica (we haven;t decided which one yet), you need to stay up here some time and I'll take you an a tour of some lovely pubs out in the sticks (Alison will drive us I hope :P )

I'd love that mate. When are you realistically thinking?

Nothing better than kicking back with a pint or two at your local, that hasn't been done up to all and sundry, maintains it's traditional looks, and serves food. So many trendy pubs out there I feel have lost the plot on what makes a good drinking and dining experience. It's not about making everything modern and plastic!

Man, I bet even the trendiest and plastic pub is better than the crappy bars we have over here in 'merica where you get to choose from the 3 beers on tap: Bud, Bud Light or Miller Light.

If you couldn't care less what kind of ale you get (I'm a pit of a snob..or wanker to some people I guess...and obvious crap like Old Peculiar, Adnams, Directors courage, Black Sheep and ANYTHING by Greeneking except the Abbot ale Reserve are utter gash to me)

I dunno, I can blather about imperial porters and black IPAs as well as the next beer snob, but I reckon that a lot of those beers (Adnams and Black Sheep in particular) mostly suffer from the fact that they're go-to beers for pubs that feel they ought to have a couple of ales on but don't really know what they're doing, hence you get a hundred really mediocre pints of them to every one that actually shows off the beer for what it is. Some of the Adnams beers can be wonderful in an understated way if they're well kept. Also speaking as someone who fecking hates Greene King, their XX mild is genuinely rather good. There are still a few GK pubs around here that are properly run by traditional landlords rather than being managed by the GK corporate box-ticking machine, and the difference in the beers is astonishing.

...oh yes, where was I....if you couldn't care less what ale you had there are 2 fantastic pubs in the village I used to live in, Stanton by Dale...both nice country pubs but ruined by their boring beer...

Know what you mean, though. Until the pub on our street reopened and was good, our de-facto local was an Adnams house which was a generally nice pub with a good atmosphere, friendly staff etc, but despite having 8 hand pumps on the beer was pretty dull because they'd go for 5 Adnams beers (which were all lightly hopped pale to mid brown ales) and three guests (which were also normally lightly hopped pale to mid brown ales) and although they kept them extremely well, you'd get quite bored after the second pint or so.

To an extent, though, if I'm sat outdoors on a nice day with mates for a couple of hours, I'm quite happy with a well kept but undemanding beer.

I'm mainly talking about the dining side though - love a bit of food served. Today had Homemade Pork & Apple Pie with Chips, with two 1/2 IPA's.

Proper pub pie (ie something with lardy shortcrust pastry, not slop-with-a-top ie a bowl of microwaved stew with a puff pastry lid plonked on it after cooking) is amazing but increasingly hard to find. I can't believe we haven't got a Campaign for Real Pies yet, apart from the fact that the acronym would get a bit close to CRaP.

Nothing better than kicking back with a pint or two at your local, that hasn't been done up to all and sundry, maintains it's traditional looks, and serves food. So many trendy pubs out there I feel have lost the plot on what makes a good drinking and dining experience. It's not about making everything modern and plastic!

Man, I bet even the trendiest and plastic pub is better than the crappy bars we have over here in 'merica where you get to choose from the 3 beers on tap: Bud, Bud Light or Miller Light.

Ditto for canada, mostly. You guys have no idea how lucky you are.

If you couldn't care less what kind of ale you get (I'm a pit of a snob..or wanker to some people I guess...and obvious crap like Old Peculiar, Adnams, Directors courage, Black Sheep and ANYTHING by Greeneking except the Abbot ale Reserve are utter gash to me)

I dunno, I can blather about imperial porters and black IPAs as well as the next beer snob, but I reckon that a lot of those beers (Adnams and Black Sheep in particular) mostly suffer from the fact that they're go-to beers for pubs that feel they ought to have a couple of ales on but don't really know what they're doing, hence you get a hundred really mediocre pints of them to every one that actually shows off the beer for what it is. Some of the Adnams beers can be wonderful in an understated way if they're well kept. Also speaking as someone who fecking hates Greene King, their XX mild is genuinely rather good. There are still a few GK pubs around here that are properly run by traditional landlords rather than being managed by the GK corporate box-ticking machine, and the difference in the beers is astonishing.

...oh yes, where was I....if you couldn't care less what ale you had there are 2 fantastic pubs in the village I used to live in, Stanton by Dale...both nice country pubs but ruined by their boring beer...

Know what you mean, though. Until the pub on our street reopened and was good, our de-facto local was an Adnams house which was a generally nice pub with a good atmosphere, friendly staff etc, but despite having 8 hand pumps on the beer was pretty dull because they'd go for 5 Adnams beers (which were all lightly hopped pale to mid brown ales) and three guests (which were also normally lightly hopped pale to mid brown ales) and although they kept them extremely well, you'd get quite bored after the second pint or so.

To an extent, though, if I'm sat outdoors on a nice day with mates for a couple of hours, I'm quite happy with a well kept but undemanding beer.

@ Mick: I'm based more in Derbyshire than Nottingham...although I work in Nottingham and there are some decent pubs in the centre too. I didn't have any particular date in mind as yet, plenty of time to sort that out

There were some cracking pubs in Notts when I was there, although if anything they get better as you get out of the centre...

my actual town's pubs are really shite, sadly, but theres loads and loads of really good ones not too far away.

When we very occasionally get a babysitter, we now get dropped off somewhere random, do a pub crawl and get a (cheap) taxi back.

Some lovely ales.

That said, i had some really nice pints of san miguel, which ive not drank in like 8 years, this weekend as it was so hot. Abso-bloody-exactly lovely alan.

Man, I bet even the trendiest and plastic pub is better than the crappy bars we have over here in 'merica where you get to choose from the 3 beers on tap: Bud, Bud Light or Miller Light.

It's not that much different to the pub demographic in the UK in terms of beer taste and serving amount (3 taps on average), just some serve ales as well. Miller Genuine Draft is a fairly decent US beer too.

A bar and club up the road from me (The Bullingdon - Ben UFO played there this year) recently got refurbished and now sells food (not sure if it's takeaway menu or traditional pub style), so I'll have to check it out on a night out. I don't mind trendy looks as long as some of the character of the original is kept - you could make the comparison between how a lot of modern D&B sounds totally ruined because it's so different than where the beats normatively came from.

I'm mainly talking about the dining side though - love a bit of food served. Today had Homemade Pork & Apple Pie with Chips, with two 1/2 IPA's.

Proper pub pie (ie something with lardy shortcrust pastry, not slop-with-a-top ie a bowl of microwaved stew with a puff pastry lid plonked on it after cooking) is amazing but increasingly hard to find. I can't believe we haven't got a Campaign for Real Pies yet, apart from the fact that the acronym would get a bit close to CRaP.

The pie I had sits in the former category - it wasn't slop by any means. The pub/restaurant was The Plough Inn in Alvescot, Oxfordshire, a place that's recently had new management put in, and the food quality has changed a little bit. I thought the pie was really good, but just lacking a bit of ingredient kick to make it great.

@ Mick: I'm based more in Derbyshire than Nottingham...although I work in Nottingham and there are some decent pubs in the centre too. I didn't have any particular date in mind as yet, plenty of time to sort that out

Ok so Give me a PM closer to the time, or I'll be in touch

[Statto]

traditional pubs

we've just moved our chess club into a little backstreet pub with little rooms and rotating guest beers

best place ever

Until you have experienced this at the pub, you haven't lived

[Statto]

there were morris dancers in the backyard of the Lincolnshire Poacher last year

There's a really nice pub in the arse end of nowhere near where my parents live that has morris dancing and a mummers play in the street outside on boxing day, new year's day and twelth night. There's a barbecue with sausages and burgers and Shepherd Neame beers on gravity. We normally walk / bike out there on boxing day. It's great - cars have to wait for the current dance to finish before they can get through. It's like the Notting Hill Carnival meets The Archers.

Lincolnshire Poacher

Only decent Castle Rock pub in Notts

(mainly because they dare to serve beers other than castle rock beers. I find castle rock beers on the whole pretty insipid, bland ...blah blah blah...beer nazi moan...castle rock grumble...and so on).
Only 2 I generally like are Screech Owl and Midnight Owl

Ok, erI'm going as I'm off again

I'm back

(On my lunch break at work )

So other pubs I have visited on a number of occassions that I recommend for those who like proper old pubs (and ale) are:

The Victoria Inn in Durham

The Chesire Cheese Inn in Castleton

Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem in Nottingham (reputedly the oldest pub in England...shame it's now owned by Greeneking, but the building is nice at least...and haunted)

The Exeter Arms in Derby

The Royal oak in Ockbrook

Cliff Inn in Crich

Black Bulls Head in Belper

Dead Poets in Holbrook

Not so old but thoroughly good are:

The Marlpool Brewery tap in Marlpool, Heanor

The Butchers Arms in Langley Mill

Fanny's Ale House in Idle, Bradford

There's loads in York city centre too, but I've forgotten the names of them all

The Exeter Arms is a nice pub, but isn't it straight up Marstons? I'm surprised that you're happy with that if you get sniffy about Castle Rock!

Have you been to the Victoria at Beeston or the Brunswick in Derby? You could probably get quite a good train based pub crawl starting with those two.

The Johnson Arms in Dunkirk and the Plough (home of the Nottingham Brewery) at Radford were other suburban Nottingham favourites.

Exeter Arms is owned by Dancing Duck Brewery now. They have Marstons pedigree on always, but the other 6 pumps are always 3 dancing duck and 2 guests when I've been in

I forgot The Brunswick and the Victoria..both excellent, I'll add them to the list!

I love the Plough (as Nottingham Brewery are one of my favourites), but I never find it particularly enticing as a building, it looks like it was done up in the 50's and hasn't been touched since then

Not tried the Johnson Arms

One place I keep meaning to go to for a pub crawl but never find the time is Sheffield. I've been told it's excellent and also extremely cheap!

A bar and club up the road from me (The Bullingdon - Ben UFO played there this year) recently got refurbished and now sells food (not sure if it's takeaway menu or traditional pub style), so I'll have to check it out on a night out.

Just done that - thoroughly enjoyable it was too

One 8oz Ribeye Steak with Egg & Onion Rings was absolutely gorgeous.