BITE user comments - TPFitzayre
Comments by TPFitzayre
The Grainstore Brewery, Oakham
This place must be somewhere wonderful to get gently soused on a pleasant summers afternoon. We went on the balmy Saturday evening of the aforementioned Rutland Beer Festival, and the place was heaving - inside and out (unprecendented queue levels outside the gents lavs, let alone the ladies).
Still, the beer was magnificent, the atmosphere wonderfully convivial. The band, The Pulse, impressed by covering The Undertones and Buzzcocks... but surely someone should have imposed a limit on Jam songs.
Great pub which, one can easily imagine, would be lovely a little less lively (and without having to be deafened to A Town Called Malice).
1 Sep 2005 12:33
Used to be really rundown but, following a recent refit, is now quite pleasant - and sells good beer. Harpenden has been on the slide recently pubwise, so nice to rediscover the Cup.
25 Jul 2005 16:54
The Carpenters Arms, Harpenden
Great little pub, tucked away (a good) 10 minutes walk from the station/the main Harpenden drag - in an area which, though I came to this pub, seems like it may well be good for a pub crawl in its own right.
Very pleasant garden, and a fine pint of Abbot (which is so very easy to get badly wrong).
19 Jul 2005 13:24
Puts one in mind of The Fall's 80's cover of the song 'Victoria', rather than The Kinks original; what it lacks in artistic integrity, is made up for in rumbustious interpretation. Pubs not bad either... the Tring beers are usually bland, but the guests are usually good.
13 Jul 2005 16:07
I can empathise with almost all the comments listed so far. This has most of the ingredients that should make it a great pub... but somehow, yesterday, I didn't really want to stay for a second pint.
Again, its hard to put a finger on whats wrong. It's so near to charmingly quirky - but doesn't quite carry it off.
Black squirrels in the bins round the back were interesting, but even they're just arboreal vermin.
13 Jun 2005 12:48
The student quiz a bastion of Sunday night entertainment here (apparently) has, after two glorious years, ended. I'm sorry.
My girlfriend and I were at the last one.
It was well done, if you like that kind of thing.
If you're here for the beer well, we felt a compulsion to drink up and out to somewhere better.
2 Jun 2005 13:32
Probably the oldest pub in Nottingham, according to the (very useful) beer guide available on the trams, although The Olde Trip would argue. It certainly goes back a long way from the front door, past two bars to the (presumably) main bar at the back. Good beer, a good crowd, good jazz. I'd recommend it thoroughly.
2 Jun 2005 13:26
Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, Nottingham
Had expected it be at terrible tourist trap, and was pleasantly suprised that it really wasn't too bad... the only tourists, as far as I could make out, were my girlfriend and I. Other than that, groups of grungey (largely inoffensive) kids, a young couple reading The Guardian and an eccentric old couple who'd decided their paper was for public consumption - rifling through Saturdays supplements and moaning there was nothing there of interest...
All this, a ton of history and real ale to boot. We enjoyed it quite a lot.
2 Jun 2005 13:21
Fellows Morton & Clayton Ltd, Nottingham
Quite a good pub and, yes, the Post Haste is really nice. Loads of tellies of various sizes, which made watching the playoffs at the weekend easy enough - although I had to be sat on the table next to the idiot loudly regailing his girlfriend (who seemed far more interested in texting somebody else on her mobile)with his wisdom of lower league football. Apparently most of the players of Sheffield Wednesday and Hartlepool Utd won't even be professional footballers. Things surely aren't that bad... not even in Nottingham.
2 Jun 2005 12:35
The Wyvern, Luton
Spent years reflecting the sad decline of the adjacent Vauxhall factory, and seemed to be crying out to be put out of it's misery when the plant finally shut...
But went on, increasingly shambolically, for years.
Last year, however, it went through a major refurb and now fancies itself as a quality beer and eats joint. Pity, since the demise of Vauxhalls, its out on its own in a quiet part of town; and prices are a little excessive, but a far nicer place to enjoy a pint than it was a few months ago.
10 Feb 2006 16:56