The Crown and Mitre, Kings Lynn

Having read an interesting review of this pub in The Daily Telegraph ('Pint to Pint; Aug 11th 2012), my wife and I decided to visit it for lunch on the 28th of August. My wife went upstairs and I ordered a wine for her while I took a look at the selection of real ales. I said to the woman serving me that I didn't know any of the beers and so could she tell me which ones were less dark as I tend to like the 'blond' ales. She pointed to one and I politely asked if I could have a small taster before buying a pint; I explained that as I was driving, it was going to be my only pint and I didn't want to risk having a pint that was not to my taste. As many will know, this isn't an unusual request and I've never had a problem in the past ...until now !
She rather brusquely said 'No, we don't do that' and when I asked why was told that 'people then want to try all six beers !' I thought this was a bit inpertinent as it was suggesting that I would take advantage of them. I decided not to have a beer at all and went upstairs where I explained to my wife what had happened. Neither of us thought this was particularly friendly and we decided to have lunch elsewhere.
As we walked towards the door I passed the landlord standing by the bar and said to him 'you've missed out on two meals'. The next second, WW3 broke out - he erupted and immediately started swearing at me in the most coarse way. He shouted "F*** off to Weatherspoons if you want free beer" followed by "F*** off out my pub or I'll throw you out" and then came up to me and pushed me. I firmly believed he was looking to provoke me into a physical confrontation but kept my cool and went out the door. My wife stood her ground by the door to say how appalled she was with his language and attitude but he just continued to swear at her saying "F*** the Telegraph" when she tried to say why we had gone there. Neither of us have ever experienced anything like this in over 46 years of visiting pubs across the country.
Interestingly, on re-reading the Telegraph review, we noted the following sentences from Cristopher Middleton: "Roger Duggan favours a combative approach...", also "Of course, the cut-and-thrust can take a little getting used to; in response to my asking which glass contains the beer from the Humpty Dumpty Brewery, which from the Cambridge Brewery and which from the Acorn Brewery the reply was 'You weren't concentrating were you' ". Funnily enough, the 'Pint to Pint' review of this pub on the Telegraph's excellent East England Pub guide is not included but we still have the cutting so I can remind myself this really happened and it wasn't just a bad nightmare.

23 Sep 2012 17:35