Hops & Glory
This morning I found a signed copy of Hops & Glory, Pete Brown's newly published book, stuffed down the back of the stereo. I silently cursed Francesca and John O', the unlikely pair who minded the shop for me last night as I sat chortling at Rob Brydon down on Shaftesbury Avenue. I assume the man himself (Pete Brown, not Rob Brydon) dropped it off in person. So, thanks to Pete for his kind donation to my library, and no thanks to my staff for failing to mention it to me as I came back to lock up. (You forgot to drain the glasswasher and switch off the lights in the cellar too, you pair of numbnuts).
You can see out latest guest beers in the photo: Mordue Workie Ticket and York Constantine. Both of them are excellent. In the background, on the back bar, you can see an old Whitbread Bitter ceramic keg font. I got it for 99p on Ebay. The girls think it looks stupid and I suspect one of them will "accidentally" break it before long.
19 comments:
I thought putting flowers on the bar had been added to your long list of unmitigated failures.
I know it's Clerkenwell,luvvie, but it is still a pub.
Sort yourself out.
I find that staff ALWAYS forget to switch something off.......
No, it's flowers between the handpumps that failed. Flowers on the bar are essential to differentiate us from dirty old man's pubs! ;0)
I had a pint of that Workie earlier, is it doing the rounds at the moment, where do they get these names. I saw Rob Brydon in St. Albans recently and he picked on me badly, ended up legging it to the bar , and then upstairs. He managed to get me in on his song at the end rhyming me with Hunt.
Far be it from me to tell you what to do in your own pub - but let me tell you that flowers on a bar top are wrong.
Especially flowers jammed into some freebie glass of a long-forgotten wheat beer.
Even a woman will tell you it is wrong.
It's the licensed trade equivalent of someone being confused about their sexuality.
If you don't believe me throw the whole subject out to a vote.
Simple question - EVEN though it's Clerkenwell are flowers on a bar top poncey ?
I'll sit back and watch you suck it up feller.
Ah, Workie Ticket - great stuff, especially out of the pin in my dining room...!
York beers are always good too, although I prefer the lighter ones.
Hops and Glory looks good, I shall look out for it.
You're very strange, aren't you pal?
Why does this blog attract nutters? What do I have to do - stop mentioning beer altogether? Sometimes I think that's the only way.
Strange you mention not talking about beer. I got nearly double my usual hit number in statcounter today when I blogged about the cover photo of last Friday's Sun.
I think flowers make a place look cared for. Perhaps most blokes don't care but the ladies might. I like pubs with ladies in them, tends to make for a nicer experience. Perhaps I'm weird.
i bet the flowers aren't even consciously noticed by most people, they're just adding to the general look and atmosphere of the place.
(even The Pillars of Hercules has flowers on the bar and that's a bit of a dump)
i presume Thurston isn't keen on the serving of quality food either - that's very un-pub-like too.
Hops are indeed female flowers which means there are already flowers on the bar, so to speak.
A few more are a welcome addition and indeed inferring that the publican is quite at home with their sexuality, be it male or female, in my humble opinion.
Peace.
michael-j you are quite wrong.
I like good food in pubs as much as I like good beer.
I also like flowers in a pub - they brighten the place up.
I just don't happen to like flowers on a bar top.
As I think I said in my original message.
It gets in the way of elbows and glasses.
fair enough, but your cliche'd comments about 'poncey Clerkenwell' etc seemed to suggest the exact opposite.
and regarding the bar top - i've not yet been to the Gunmakers, but maybe the bar itself isn't that busy, with most people sitting down or standing elsewhere to drink? if the flowers were in the way, i'm sure Jeff would have had the wit to move them!
Comments like "poncey Clerkenwell" show he knows nothing about London. Best leave it that.
As an aside, it always amuses me when people outside of London think of Islington (just to the North of here) as "poncey". As any fule kno, Upper Street is somewhere you average resident of provincial Britain would feel rather at home: apart from the very nice Camden Passage antiques shops, it's just a strip of chain shops and bars and looks a bit like a grim high street in the Midlands.
Jeff - have you tried the Mordue IPA? It was on at the Hop Pole up here in Aylesbury a few months back, and I thought it was excellent. Extremely hoppy (which is fine by me), reminiscent of Jaipur but at a slightly more sensible ABV - 5% if I recall. I've really enjoyed all the Mordue ales I've tried so far.
I think that flowers on the bar are ok, as long as they don't get in the way. It's what we do too. It is especially classy to have them in a pint pot, as we did until finally buying a real vase. Actually an old John Player Vanguardwater jug. 'Low tar with middle tar taste', got to to love the seventies. :)
Upper Street does indeed look much like a grim Midlands high street, at least until you get to Islington Green, at which point (up until maybe Cross St) it surely and indisputably becomes poncy? (Unless Midlands towns generally have theatre pubs, antique furniture shops, retro home stores and lifestyle shops, not to mention upmarket eateries like Ottolenghi.) In any case, I tend to avoid it...
Er... Jeff, you're most welcome!
I was in drinking with friends and have just received my small stash of copies so thought I'd drop one off with you in the cynical hopes of getting a plug. So I'm glad that worked, but imagine my disappointment when I saw 17 comments on a post ostensibly about my book, only to find it sidetracked into a vicious debate about flowers. The web is a strange and wonderful thing...
ps the non-beerophile chap and two ladies I brought to your pub rather liked the 'workie tickie' (they'd already had a few) but preferred the TT Landlord.
I'm posting from the U.S. and find this discussion very interesting. The author's comment about the discussion wavering way off track is well taken, as is the point about non-beer related posts seeming to garner more comments. The thing I find most interesting is the discussion of pub (or bar) "styles" you seem to have. I'm trying to think how this sort of comparative study would work on bars (pubs) in the U.S.....and I'm giving myself a headache. I love this post and I love this blog.
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