Counting House, City of London and Red Lion, Bromley

I'm not a huge fan of drinking in London's Square Mile. For readers not familiar, the Square Mile is the financial centre of London, where greed driven looneys come together to wear seizure inducing stripy suits and piss away other peoples money. The last time I went for a drink in a bar near Moorgate, they had the cheek to charge £5 for a pint of Peroni, and £4 for a pint of so-so Doom Bar. I was surrounded by braying gents who had a better relationship with their Blackberry than the colleagues around them. What did people do in awkward social situations before smartphones came along? All across London bars are filled with co-workers desperately eeking out small talk before eventually giving up and retreating to the comforting glow of their iPhone screen. Did co-workers just use to stand around looking so awkward that one of them would eventually expire, giving the others something to talk about?

If you look hard enough you will find some pubs in the square mile that aren't filled with punters with more money than they know what to do with paying ludicrous amounts of money for swill and piss (or San Miguel to use its trading name.) The Counting House near Bank station is one of them. This is a large two floor and rather grandiose Fullers pub which used to be a branch of Natwest. It's an impressive space with an imposing domed roof. Rammed with the more down to earth city workers it has a good pubby atmosphere. Ale wise the large bar serves the full Fullers selection and not much else, I couldn't see any guest ales. I went for a couple of pints of Chiswick, a solid best bitter which always manages to hit the spot, thanks to its subtle fruity flavour which flourishes in the finish.

The striking interior of the Counting House. Photo from the Fullers website. I could never
take a photo this good.

As an Ale and Pie house I thought I may as well have a pie, and I tried the house pie which was very good and packed full of steak with a good portion of mash. Although the large space and high ceiling makes for a noisy pub, there's no blaring music which makes it fine to hold a conversation. The noise level is high enough that you don't have to listen to the absolute nonsense the suited and booted clan are no doubt wittering on about as they slowly bankrupt our country into the ground. There are a coupler of quiet nooks and crannies as well, especially on the upper level.

I have been house hunting the past few months. House hunting would be a great experience if it didn't involve estate agents. It amazes me just how much of a chancer occupation being an estate agent is. There is no qualification or entry requirement for being one, these people are just winging it and pulling selling prices for a pile of second hand bricks out of thin air. It's getting depressing on how many unkempt, unloved houses which are supposedly a "the perfect first time buyer home" I've viewed, where the agent has convinced the poor seller that the hole they're living in is worth a grossly overestimated sum of money. Anything in reasonable condition and sensibly priced is off the market in a matter of days. I know I'm not saying anything new but it is depressing trying to buy a house in London.

Me and the Lovely Jemma viewed a house in Bromley North. I knew we'd never buy the place as it was the size of a postage stamp, but I really like the area. The fact that there are four good quality pubs and a Chinese takeaway had no influence on this decision at all. When we viewed the house I could barely fit inside. I felt like I was Alice in Wonderland and I'd taken a bite of the "Eat Me" cake. My head was touching the ceiling in all the rooms upstairs. It was a glorified dolls house. We didn't make an offer but it apparently sold. I've no idea if it went for the asking price of £220,000 but I've got a horrible feeling it wasn't far off.

No picture of the Red Lion so here's a picture of
"Spongebob  Squarepants" which
The Lovely Jemma put together at
Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

Out of the four pubs the Red Lion is probably the best. This is a friendly little boozer which is always a pleasure to visit. Although small it's got a good bit of character, with a large bookshelf against one wall bursting with books. The landlord knows how to keep an ale and I enjoyed a delicious pint of Caledonian Flying Scotsman. This was a pretty good specimen of a best bitter with a hearty hoppy flavour. The pub has won CAMRA awards in the past and it deserves them. A good place to stop by if you're in the area.

You may have noticed I've been reliable about what drinks I had at each pub. That's thanks to "Untappd" which I've recently downloaded for my Android phone. It allows you to record what you've drunk, where you had it, and see what other people thought of the ale. Well worth downloading!

Mitchells and Butlers, Brewdog Shoreditch

I'm convinced that ordering food at an unknown pub is always one of the biggest gambles you can take in the UK. Forgot about the bookies or going to a casino, ordering a "Huntsman Chicken" and seeing if the chicken is (a) not as pink as my nose on a cold December day and (b) actually chicken and not "avian substitute product" is more risky than those ridiculous Ladbrokes football bets. The ones where you bet Rooney will score a goal at precisely 7:43pm off the backside of a passing goose. To be fair I've heard tales of what pub food was like in the dim and distant past, which seemed to consist of pickling anything that could fit into a human mouth and maybe a limp soggy bap if you were lucky, and I'm grateful we've moved on from those days. But sometimes it's better a pub serves no food rather than over-stretching themselves

Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) are a owner of chain pubs that have really taken on the pub food mantle. So much so that I would rarely go into if I just having a pint. I recently visited an M&B owned "Vintage Inn" pub near Biggin Hill, the Aperfield Inn. I'd be tempted to call this place a restaurant rather than a pub. There is a bar and a small seating area for drinkers but this was basically a Harvester in all but name. The small ale selection had London Pride and Youngs available. I opted for a pint of Youngs Bitter which was in good flavour, befitting of the Casque Mark the pub had been awarded. It's a shame the Aperfield isn't more welcoming to drinkers, as it's the only pub nearby in the area and it would make for a good community hub. To be fair the food I had was tasty (a Pork Belly Sunday Lunch) but this wasn't really a place you could go for a chat and a pint.

M&B also own the Ember Inn brand. I've generally thought of them to be more as food pubs like the Vintage Inn but my view was changed when I recently popped in to the Railway Hotel in West Wickham. As it's mentioned in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide and I just had to tick it off on their mobile app, I went in for just a quick pint. There was a mini ale festival on with a good selection of Great British Beer Festival winners, so I ended up staying for a couple. I enjoyed a pint of RCH Brewery P.G Steam, a solid best bitter with a pleasant hint of sweetness. The Leeds Brewery Leeds Pale Ale wasn't as good, but was still a tasty, floral and hoppy ale. The atmosphere was comfortable and overall I spent a perfectly pleasant evening there. It certainly exceeded my expectations, or perhaps misconceptions, of what appeared to be a nondescript, everyday chain pub.

Obligatory terrible camera phone shot of the interior of Brewdog Shoreditch

Aw shucks

I also had the pleasure recently of visiting the recently opened BrewDog Shoreditch. I've visited their Camden venue previously and while the Shoreditch outlet was similar it also felt a little different. It's a large space with a downstairs basement which will apparently be used for live gigs in the future. It has the same industrial interior with bare concrete ceiling and walls, metal grating and exposed wiring. This is fine at night when the bar is dimly lit but I imagine it could start feeling a little oppressive during the day. The beer selection is as impressive as ever with the usual BrewDog suspects on tap, along with rare guest beers and a wide selection of bottled beers. I enjoyed a half of the Punk IPA, its fruity flavours with a slight tangy edge coming through pleasantly as ever. I also sampled a couple of American guest beers. The first was the Rogue Hazlenut Brown which tasted suspiciously like a Cornetto but was oddly addictive. Second was the Double Jack from Firestone, a really rather good brown ale with a subtle hoppy taste. Most American beers have a overpowering flavour of fruity hops and can be reminiscent of drinking an alcoholic Um Bongo so this made a pleasant change.

The artists rendition  of Paddy is scarily
accurate.

There is a small food menu, although the excellent burgers and pizza from the Camden branch are missing from here. The menu has a Japanese theme, with beef buns and chicken skewers. There's also JFC which apparently stands for Japanese Fried Chicken. I initially thought it was Jewish Fried Chicken and I expected a nice old lady to bring out a huge bucket of chicken because you're looking a bit thin these days don't they feed you at home? You're going to catch your death of cold! Sadly I didn't get the chance to try the food. Peeking at other tables the food looked pretty good and I'd like to give it a try next time I'm there.

Finally, considering the Shoreditch location, I'm pleased to report the bar was largely hipster free and I didn't feel the urge to punch anybody in the face. I can't guarantee that's the situation every night though.

I'm going to try and start doing more regular updates of this blog. In the future there will be a new post on the 15th and 30th of the month as a minimum. I do enjoy broadcasting my inane thoughts over the internet, and I hope you enjoy reading them!

The Charles Lamb, The Barnsbury

Another long delay between blog posts and again this is due to a holiday. This time I was in Sorrento, Italy, which was absolutely gorgeous. The scenery on the Amalfi coast is breathtaking, and the food and drink weren't bad either. Amusingly there was a "British pub" there (plus the ubiquitous "Irish bars") although I didn't venture in to try the John Smiths that was on offer. Being Italy there were countless mopeds whizzing about, and it was a gamble when crossing the street if you were actually going to make it across this time. Amusingly Italians just hop onto a moped no matter what they're wearing, from suit and tie to casual T-shirt and jeans. Of course being Italian they make it look effortlessly cool. Much better than the angry dreadlocked courier with the hand me down clothes you tend to see on bikes in London. On occasion whole families would be squeezed onto a moped, with the family dog tucked into the front. I was almost tempted to rent a moped but I knew full well I would die seconds after getting on the road thanks to the absolutely insane driving of Italian drivers.

If you look at this photo very closely you can hear an American saying "Isn't it just gorgeous?!"

A danger I wasn't prepared for in Sorrento was the countless Americans who were there. I don't mind Americans, but for some reason they irritate me when they're on holiday in a European country. They're kind of fun at first as they marvel at buildings that are "over 100 years old!" and ask if the waiter "really is from Italy?" but then I find the constant braying and getting drunk on two glasses of wine gets very irritating very quickly. In restaurants they inevitably start asking inane questions to anybody who has the misfortune to sit next to them, completely ignoring the answers and prattling on about how great New York or whichever little corner of America they're from is. I just want to enjoy my Spaghetti without having to hear Doris from Connecticut tell her entire life story.

The food in Sorrento was great although every restaurant seemed to serve the exact same menu of pasta, pizza, meat and fish. By the end of my brief trip there I was practically gagging for traditional British cuisine such as a curry or kebab. So on my return to England it was straight to the Charles Lamb on Sunday for a roast, accompanied by The Lovely Jemma and a flame haired Irish friend. The Charles Lamb is a cosy two room boozer down a quiet side street near Angel tube station. It can be easily missed, and one chap at the bar was berating his friend for picking a pub that was so difficult to find. I like to think that after a couple of well kept ales he would be thanking his friend for bringing him here.

This was my first visit to this quite fine pub. The Sunday roast was excellent, the beef a very pleasant shade of pink and the veg in good form. The ale was excellent too, although thankfully not pink. I enjoyed a couple of delicious pints of Thornbridge "Sequoia," a typically classy Thornbridge bitter with a warming hoppy taste. Staff were friendly and the pub didn't feel cliquey or stuffy the way some pubs in Islington can. Basically it was hipster free.

This photo in the window of a Sorrento
photography studio was
basically the highlight of my trip.

Afterwards we moved on to The Barnsbury, another first time pub for me and recommended in the Good Beer Guide 2013. I love going to a CAMRA recommended pub for the first time. First because visiting a new pub is always an adventure, and second because I get to tick off the pub from my mobile version of the Good Beer Guide. It's very satisfying to push the "Pub Visited" button. I recommend the Good Beer Guide app generally, it's a very useful tool to have especially when you're in a new town and you're not sure which pub you can go to where you most likely won't get stabbed by crazed locals, or drink an ale which tastes of soapy water poured from a tramps boot.

The beer in The Barnsbury did not taste like soapy tramp boot water, far from it, and I had a perfectly well kept pint of Dark Star Hophead, a classic pint with the excellent floral flavours coming through fabulously. The atmosphere was pleasant although I did hear a Coldplay song being played, thankfully it didn't last long and the rest of the music was fine. Again this pub is sort of in the middle of nowhere, but well worth making a visit if you find yourself in the area.

I've got no holidays planned for a while now, and now that I'm looking at buying a house it's most likely I'll never go on holiday again. Expect more frequent updates of this blog in the future. I know you can't wait!