Then and now - Farringdon and Covent Garden pubs

It's always fun revisiting a pub I haven't been to in a while because most pubs go through plenty of changes in their lifetime and at some places the experience can change every few months. This past Friday I had the pleasure of revisiting some pubs in London on a mini pub crawl with some good friends of mine. As I hadn't been to these pubs in a while I thought it would be fun to revisit my original thoughts and see if much has changed.

Craft Beer Co Leather Lane

Then: A well known mecca for ale lovers with a absolutely ridiculous price for pork pies.

Now: Every time I walk past the Craft on a Friday evening it's just so ridiculously busy. This is not just a mecca for ale lovers, it now appears to be a mecca for every office worker in the Farringdon area. This small pub gets uncomfortably busy as the large bar and bench seating down the side take up a fair amount of space, leaving not much room for customers. There is an upstairs but tables up there can be reserved so it's pretty much impossible to get a seat. Walking in the crowd were three or four deep waiting at the bar. It felt very claustrophobic.

But with such a fine selection of ales on offer I'll put up with the small space and risk of having a panic attack. Ales from stalwarts Dark Star, Thornbridge and Marble were on offer, and plenty other breweries were represented on cask and keg. A Thornbridge Christmas Ale was a solid take on the rather hoary Christmas Ale formula, a tasty red ale with a subtle spicy undertone. Marble Lagonda was a excellent example of a pale ale. The Marble guys know how to create a good brew. The pork pies remain stupidly expensive.

Verdict: Still awesome but visit during the week and eat food beforehand.

Ye Olde Mitre

Then: A charming little pub although the pint I had tasted a bit like coal. 

Now: I have been to this pub a couple of times since that blog post and I can't really say it's charming any more. Mainly because how much of a sausage fest this place is. Sure you get the occasional confused lady who has been dragged along by their beer loving partner, or the nervous looking secretary who has been forced to visit with their sweaty "hands on" boss, but mainly this place is filled with blokes. The beer was in good condition, my pint of Dark Star Original being a comforting, if workmanlike brown bitter. However with the pub over run with braying men the atmosphere is a little bland. We didn't stay long before moving on.

Verdict: Lovely beer but atmosphere is a bit sweaty

Holborn Whippet

Then: Beers are served from a wall that bleeds ale and a sterile atmosphere where I couldn't get comfortable.

Now: I wasn't too impressed by the Whippet last time but a revisit made me warm to the place. I still find the wall in the middle that bleeds beer a bit odd. I opted for a half of Arbor Oyster Stout which was in excellent form. My friends went for a Lagunitas IPA which sadly wasn't in the best of form and seemed to be end of the barrel. Maybe that's why it was a fiver a pint which is actually pretty cheap for a pint of this trendy American IPA. Like the Craft Beer Co the Whippet seems to be incredibly busy every time I walk past it and this Friday night was no exception. The staff were friendly and on the ball, and the atmosphere was jovial. A pleasant place for a drink and I'd be happy to go back.

Verdict: Liked it a whole lot more this time.

The Cross Keys

Then: Likeable, slightly sleazy pub with plenty of tat hanging from the ceiling. Boisterous atmosphere.

Now: This Brodies pub continues to amuse me. It just seems so jarringly out of place in trendy Covent Garden. It feels like a locals pub from the 80's with the copper pans and other assorted antique tat hanging from the ceiling and the deep red lighting. It's shabby and doesn't even pretend to be modern or relevant. The beer was good and I enjoyed a pint of Brodie's malty, comforting Mild. This place continues to attract a "boisterous" (e.g. pissed) crowd, and we eventually left after a group of gents clad in lederhosen got a bit too loud for their own good.

Verdict: Great beer, nice room, dodgy customers

The Harp

Then: "An ale oasis in a area filled with expensive, soulless bars packed to the rafters with confused tourists and twats"

The Harp remains a text book example of how to run an excellent boozer in Central London. Its location next to the very busy Charing Cross station means this pub is always packed but the superb staff make sure you get served as quickly as possible. I've got served here quicker when it's rammed than at other sleepy pubs where the staff are so dozy you end up waiting 10 minutes for a drink when there's only two patrons at the bar, and one of them is the pub dog.

This visit to The Harp didn't disappoint and I was supping a Dark Star American Pale Ale within seconds of arriving. The beer was a top notch hoppy treat. The Harp was a fine place to end this very pleasurable pub crawl.

Tap East, Stratford and The Bricklayers Arms, Putney

The gigantic Westfield shopping centre in Stratford has never appealed to me. To be presented with that many shops in one sprawling place scares the hell out of me and just the thought of the place sends me into a cold sweat. It doesn't help that Westfield is pretty much unnavigable inside and you just have to hope the bright light you're heading for is an exit and not a particularly well lit entrance to Boots. There are probably people in there who have never found the exit and have just resigned themselves to living in the shopping centre, like Tom Hanks in saccharine "The Terminal." Except these poor souls have got a better option of buying a nice pair of shoes or, as they're in Stratford, getting stabbed.

There is a glimmer of hope for the seasoned ale drinker in this bastion of capitalism. Head towards the back of shopping centre near Waitrose (which looks sorely out of place in Stratford) and you'll find Tap East. The modern interior is simple and even a little dull but the main attraction isn't the décor but the beer. Tap East has a microbrewery on site and you can see its gleaming tanks filled with mirth making juice through large glass windows at the back of the bar. I was visiting one of their festivals so there was a very good selection of guest beers, and it also featured collaborations between Tap East and other breweries.

Things got off to a good start with Hoxton Special IPA, a hoppy, fruity treat with a deceptively high ABV. It's OK though, I was sticking to halves, what could possibly go wrong? Next up was The Boss by Roosters. Thankfully it didn't taste of Bruce Springsteen, but it didn't really taste like ale either. Instead it tasted distinctly of grapefruit juice. Despite this it was oddly charming. The only collaboration ale I tried was the Beer Called Framboise, made in conjunction with Howling Hops. Despite the name I didn't twig this would be a raspberry flavoured beer, mainly because I'm an idiot. I'm not usually a fan of fruit beers. I find them too sickly and just a bit weird. After I took my first sip my immediate thought was "Oh God this is a fruit beer, where is the nearest toilet?" Luckily it was actually a really enjoyable beer. A nice dry flavour but plenty of fruity goodness as well. I wouldn't drink more than a half but it was good tipple.

Lone Ranger by Tap East was a fine if unmemorable English bitter. Texas Ranger by Mikkeller was very memorable though. This was a bit of a bonkers pint, as to be expected from those great danes over at Mikkeller. Sadly not great danes as in the dog, but rather the Danish people, although a bunch of dogs brewing beer would be pretty cool. Although I imagine the beer would probably taste a bit ruff. The Texas Ranger was a malty beer with chipotle chucked in as well. To be honest it was all a bit of a horror show but it was oddly drinkable. By this time of the night I had drunk beers with a combined percentage of about 50% so that probably helped the flavour. I wouldn't of drank more than a half of it though.

Food was provided by a man outside cooking ham, potatoes, and cheese in a massive pan. It seemed legit and I couldn't say no to this fatty feast so I bulked up on the delicious carbs. I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Tap East and it has definitely edged out the King Eddies as my favourite pub in Stratford.

I recently paid a return visit to the Bricklayers Arms in Putney, which is essentially a permanent beer festival - it even says this on a sign outside the building. It was a pleasure as always and some excellent beers were on offer. The highlights were the Triple fff Ramble Tamble, an excellent, fruity pale ale that went down a treat. In fact Triple fff had another winner with Apache Rose Peacock, a oddly named American IPA full of fruity goodness. Red Dawn by the Red Squirrel Brewery was also a treat. Thankfully it didn't taste of Patrick Swayze but was instead a very pleasant mild with a great rounded flavour.

As there was no official beer festival on I was free from the tyranny of the Morris Men who like to show up with their devil worshipper ways during festival events. In fact the pub was pretty much empty for the majority of the Saturday afternoon I was there, with it getting a little more busy as the evening went on. An excellent pub like this deserves a bit more patronage from the good folk of Putney.

The next update will be about my tales 'oop North as I visit the fine pubs of Preston. It will even have pictures! See you again soon.

Still Alive & Borough Market

I'd first like to confirm to my loyal reader that I am still alive. The lack of updates was due to the company I work for deciding to move building. As the IT Manager this would have been a fairly straight forward task if it didn't involve dealing with BT. This meant being stuck on the phone with them for hours being passed from confused person to person only to be told "oh we don't deal with that, please try this department." Or even worse you get caught in their automated voice recognition system, where you have to bark out LINE FAULT, NO and YES like a cross between a demented Cyberman and Father Jack. The annoying thing is that once you break into the engineers fortress of BT Openreach, a laughable name as they are anything but open or reachable, the engineers are friendly and knowledgeable. But getting through the seven layers of BT hell to reach them is a tiresome, soul destroying process that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. Not even Jeremy Vine. And I hate that bastard.

Still the office move is over now so I can go back to the important business of updating this blog. To get back into the feel of things I'd like to give mention to a few good pubs I did manage to visit while my soul was being slowly eroded sorting out the move. The first three pubs are all around Borough Market, a hotbed of real ale activity. First up is the Market Porter, an old favourite which is like a South London version of the Harp. This means plenty of well kept ales in a jovial atmosphere. It also means the place is tiny yet hugely popular, which means there's rarely any space inside. The outdoor area is covered by the market's roof so it's no hardship standing outside, unlike The Harp where if you're unlucky you get thrashed by the harshest elements Britain has to offer while desperately clinging on to your pint of mild.

Unfortunately the Market Porter does insist on plastic glasses if it starts getting busy outside, and ale just doesn't taste as good from a plastic receptacle. I find it patronising when a pub doesn't trust their clientèle with glass - they may as well just hand out sippy cups and be done with it. Still at least the plastic glasses don't have the number of units you're drinking printed on them unlike some pubs in the North. Of course these glasses have the opposite intended effect as most punters try to attain a high a score as possible and proudly total up the number of units on the empty glasses at the end of the night. Well done Blackpool council!

Back to Borough Market, The Rake is another favourite in the area. Again it's a tiny place but the ale is always in good form. Well it usually is. When I visited there were three ales on from a local brewery and unfortunately they weren't great. I asked for a sample of all three - the first tasted like the tropical fruit juice you can buy in Sainsburys which is not a good thing, the second of yoghurt and the third like a very substandard version of Thornbridge Kipling. I then ended up in a awkward situation as the brewer himself was in the pub and asked me what I thought of the pints.

Luckily he hadn't seen me taste the ales and watch my face contort into what a baby might look like when licking a lemon for the first time, so I was able to bullshit my way through an opinion without offending his feelings in true English fashion. I eventually plumped for a pint of the Kipling clone which admittedly did taste better the more I drank.

The final pub worth a mention in Borough Market, The Brew Wharf is round the back of Vinopolis and is a microbrew pub and restaurant. It has a modern, industrial design which I didn't find particularly welcoming or pleasant. It reminded me of a wine bar that may have been cool in the early 2000's but now felt past it. The ale, however, was excellent. I went for a pint of their Nut Brown Ale (made with real nuts) which was absolutely spot on. A tremendous bitter taste and the nuttiness was perfect. Sadly the atmosphere won't have me rushing back but I'd pop in again if I was in the area.

Finally we leave a working market for a former one, Covent Garden, for a quick mention of the Cross Keys. I made my first visit to this little gem recently and thoroughly enjoyed my visit. Just round the corner of the main Covent Garden drag the interior of this boozer is bathed in a red light which gives the place a slightly seedy feel. Which I liked. The Lovely Jemma commented that she liked all the tat hanging from the ceiling. The beer selection was good with four Brodies ales on, and two guests, in this case Darkstar Hophead and Redemption Trinity. I went for the Brodies Pale Ale which was a nice pint with plenty of fruity hoppy goodness. The atmosphere was boisterous but pleasant. Definitely worth a visit if you find yourself stuck in the Covent Garden area.

That was fun. It's been strange not expressing my pointless opinion on London's pub on the internet and I hope to start doing it on a more regular basis now. I'll also try and get some pictures. Until next time!