BITE user comments - Primative
Comments by Primative
The Famous Railway Tavern Brewing Co, Brightlingsea
I can't believe there are people who still complain about this pub. Maybe it's a good thing, otherwise it would be packed with the kind of people who think not bothering to tie your bootlaces makes you a danger to decent society.
I was at the RT again this year, having sailed with friends from Kent. I'm not mad on sailing but it was worth the trip just to return to this pub. I was not disappointed. We were unexpectedly there for the cider festival. Nothing had changed - the same irreverent landlord, drinking on the front step while his charming young son took care of business. Didn't look like he'd given much attention to the cleaning or decorating since last year, I'm pleased to say. Beer and cider were great. Atmosphere was great on day one, but next night we got the treat of our lives with The Railwaylers playing in the back room. Some superbly bad renditions of some great Ska music. I was about to shout out a request for The Clash, but didn't need to. Several suitably slovenly renditions of great Clash numbers followed, to our delight. I'd almost be prepared to move to Brightlingsea for this pub. Keep it up guys! And for those of you who don't like it - WE GET IT, now for God's sake shut up! There must be a pub with doilies and chintz curtains in Brightlingsea, surely?
9 May 2013 14:50
The King's Head is one of only a handful of proper pubs left in Canterbury. It's a bit of a walk from the town centre (Wincheap) but worth the walk.
This is the kind of place many people my age (54) remember from our youth. Bar billiards, darts, proper pub food like shepherds pie, real beer rather than stuff with fizz in it and barmaids that look like they do on Coronation Street. The barmen are usually good for a laugh and will actually chat to people they don't know.
Old Dairy Brewery beers are common here but there is always a good selection, including some interesting stouts (Ilkley was a good one). This is a lovely place to hang out for an hour early in the evening or afternoon, listening to a half cut, workshy old painter and decorator spinning yarns with the barman and a retired taxidermist. They have a darts team and bar billiards team etc and copies of Chanel Draft the local CAMRA publication always lying around.
By the way it's also a reasonably priced B&B. I've always been in a fit state to walk home, so no idea how good or bad the rooms are.
30 Apr 2012 18:00
This gastro-pub is probably more popular as a restaurant than it is a pub, but it does serve good beer. While their cod and chips is consistantly the best in Canterbury, the Gadds Seasider they often serve, is superb and well kept. Timothy Taylor is also good here. Wine is popular and is of a good quality too. What stands out here though is the food, which is always very good, and the pleasant staff. It's one of the only pubs in which I would order a burger. They are pretty outstanding.
Peter, the Landlord, keeps a close watch over everything and has very high standards. You are unlikely to eat bad food or be served a bad pint of beer here unless you're daft enough to order something like Carling Black Label.
The other nice thing about The Dolphin, is to see how much effort they make to look after old (some very old) people. Most come over from the sheltered housing flats opposite. Some come for lunch every day (I doubt they write on Beer in the Evening). At the same time, they do a good job of catering to university students in large numbers every night and keeping them under control. There is a large garden which helps, at least in the summer.
A popular place, especially in the evening. Don't be surprised if you can't find anywhere to sit, but it's busy for good reason.
30 Apr 2012 17:44
This is a pleasant old pub. It's the kind of place that never moved on after the seventies. It was probably not intentional but it succeeds by the unconscious phenomenon of waiting around long enough that it becomes retro. Believe me it's an accident. Those horse-brasses were not bought at a chic stall in Camden Lock Market. They've always been there. So have the dreadful old prints that remind you of your nan's parlour. But it has charm.
For a start it has a friendly local feel to it and a complete cross section of punters, with the exception of teenagers. This is a place even under-age drinkers avoid. Every other Monday night, the Unicorn plays host to the excellent and popular local pianist Luke Smith. This is well worth calling in for. On Sunday nights they have a popular pub quiz. There are a couple of fairly subtle TVs for use when big matches or royal weddings take place but they're not on all the time.
Basic and reasonably priced pub food is served at lunchtimes but available early evenings too. Beer can be good. CAMRA meet here sometimes. They have some good guest beers but long-term regulars still ask for Shepherd Neame's Master Brew. The ubiquitous Doom Bar is the other regular. Dark Star, Gadds, Hopdaemon and Surrey Hills Breweries are common providers of their guest beers.
This place will grow on you and if it stays the same, it could one day be the only traditional pub in Canterbury. There aren't many left.
30 Apr 2012 17:29
The Famous Railway Tavern Brewing Co, Brightlingsea
I find it hard to levy any criticism at this pub. Reading other comments, I can see some people expect to get good beer in a lounge bar or wine bar. There were no floaters in my beer!
There are not enough pubs like this. Why?
No music. No food. No gambling machines. No carpets or plastic wood floors. No conservatory with DFS furniture. No poncey bar staff (or customers - they are quickly frightened off by the grunge). No tacky Constable prints in frames. No flavoured nuts or extortionately priced crisps. No smell of bleach or air freshener (not even in the toilets). No lager, alcopops or other alcoholic children's drinks. What they do have is:
Old wooden floorboarded stationhouse - probably Victorian. Real floorboards - not sanded and silk-varnished or stained. Just casually swept once a week if you're lucky. Walls left as they were in 1955 with simple addition of some old regional railway posters (the 'Come to Skegness, it's so Bracing!' type). A few bits of old furniture around the place but not tarted up like shabby-chic. Feels a bit like a mad alcoholic artist's garret. Most people stand. Usually men aged 40-60 and generally unshaven. They do not talk about climbing the ladder to success, fast cars, houses with drives or the expensive restaurant / wine bar they took their girlfriend to. Most likely they'll be talking about beer, boat maintenance, beer festivals, pubs that have closed, the length of young girl's skirts, divorce, where to buy a cheap wheelbarrow tyre and some nutter who teaches physics who lives up the road and comes in for carry-out Bladderwort Stout when he has a woman / a few students around. There is never a dull moment.
At the front of the single room bar are some soft chairs for discerning customers (women). Here there is an original open fire with a cast iron surround. On the fire the landlord burns mainly old pallets. Just above the fireplace, on the blackened cast iron (the fire smokes badly - just waiting for a chimney fire), the word 'COMPLAINTS' has been written in chalk.
Dispite the slovenliness of this lovely pub, I have to report that the beer is very good. Much of it is brewed out the back by the Landlord, who looks like he rarely sleeps. He is probably around 45 but goes in for the rugged older man look. A very attractive woman came in to take him out for the night when I was there. She looked pragmatic (her mother was a milkmaid from Devon perhaps) and was wearing a floral dress. From the look on the faces of the regulars, not many of her type ever enter the place. Dave the landlord put on some proper footwear to go out in (old army boots with no laces). The regulars had a most eclectic range of footwear. It seemed one of them might have bought a box of Garry Glitter's old shoes from a bootfair. Dave's young son had taken over behind the bar. There was not much to know. Serve beer and take money. Throw anyone out who asks for lager or complains about bad language or dirt (or anything in fact). Lock up when you feel like it.
The Bladderwort Stout was exceptional. Oily and dark with a distinct smokey, seaweed flavour and a powerful kick. Almost hallucinogenic.
Be warned: The pipes from the urinals have corroded away. Stand back or get wet feet.
The day we were there, there was a hand written sign on the front window. Its contents sum up the style of the place.
"Contrary to popular belief, Cheeseburger and his cretinous henchmen have not been barred from this establishment. Landlord." Clearly said Cheeseburger is either a valuable customer, or he' one of those guys who makes exaggerated claims of being barred from every pub in Brightlingsea. I will be back.
30 Apr 2012 17:04
The Butcher's is undeniably a great establishment. Britain's first Micropub (the Landlord did invent the term so no arguments) and smallest pub is the kind of place a perfect Great Britain would have on every street corner. If only!
Martin always has a great selection of beers. The selection is not huge but this is not Wetherspoons we're talking about. Beers are served straight from the barrel from out in the cold store (it really was a butcher's shop). There's not much space so the barrels, and therefore the beers, change fairly frequently. If you're in there for a couple of hours and it's busy, you might see several new beers put on.
One thing I can say for certain, is that any beer you have drunk elsewhere, will probably taste better in The Butcher's. It's probably due to the lack of pipes and pumps, although Martin would claim it's his skill as a cellarman.
Some words of warning:
1. Do not turn up with 20 people on an 18th birthday or stag-do. 16 drinkers in total and the place is crammed.
2. Do not ask for lager - it's just not polite.
3. Do not ask for the menu - food is for restaurants. Apparently there are some in Herne Bay.
4. Switch off your mobile phone / switch to silent.
5. Do not ask if they have a telly.
6. Do not talk to loudly, or too much and do not talk rubbish. You may be asked to leave.
7. If Martin is prepared to sell you wine for your wife or girlfriend, do not antagonise him by asking him what grape it is, what year it is, or even what colour it is. It's wine. Think yourself lucky.
8. Always tell Martin you saw him in the paper / on the telly. He'll pretend not to care, but he loves it!
9. If it's on, the Hophead is always superb. And finally...
10. Don't tell Martin how he could make more profit. He does not speak that language.
30 Apr 2012 16:45
Brewers Arms, Brightlingsea
Went here last week for a group dinner. Food was more or less like a Harvester and beer was dull. For lager drinkers and burger munchers.
9 May 2013 15:04