I'm Hooked

I'd arranged to go on a date but due to a slight mix up, the plans had changed and the date was rescheduled for another time. I now had an evening off and out in London but with nothing to do and nobody to see I had to make some new plans.

I called around my mates, some of which I hadn't seen in a long time. Only one replied. Oh well, at least one of my mates is willing to meet up with me. With no idea of what we were doing I had a quick pint at the pub and was told by my mate Harry, to meet him at Camden Town tube.

A cousin of Harry's, Sam, had recently opened a restaurant. A fish and chip shop on Parkway in Camden, London. Along with a friend of his, they'd secured investment and opened up a restaurant in Brussels, Belgium, that was now doing very well along with this two month old venture in London. I'd actually first laid eyes on the place when I had a quick glance of the menu on my search for the elusive whitebait a couple of months back. I only had a very quick glance specifically looking for whitebait which was absent, so I had no real idea of what the menu actually consisted of. If you're interesed at all in how poorly my fishing for the little fish was then check out The search for whitebait.

I was hungry now and an excitement was started to build inside of me.

Walking up Parkway towards the restaurant, we happened to bump into Sam. Him and Harry caught up and he explained to us to order a drink but to wait for him to get back from the shops before we ordered any food. Being winter and the season of the sniffle, he was in need of some relief.

We went inside, took a seat at a big tall round table right by the front window. It was almost 9pm so we had missed the evening dinner time rush and with there being office Christmas parties and drunk wankers all over town, the place was relatively chilled. A waitress came over to tell us about the specials and this new Christmas themed cocktail that Sam had created, it had Guinness, whisky spices and some other ingredients. It was velvety smooth, rich and creamy, with the perfect amount of Christmas cheer and sweetness to allow it to go down an absolute treat. It was delicious but I think would have been better after we'd eaten as a kind of liquid desert. We should have opted for a beer to start with but like a sirens call, we couldn't resist the persuasiveness of the waitress and caved in.

Sam returned and told us of his plan. It sounds like it was going to be something rather dastardly but it was not. He told us to order a fish each, he'd then give us a 'surprise' fish and a selection of sides and some of their fabulous home made condiments. Our hunger and excitement had boiled over at this point so I ordered us some beers as we waited for our food. Harry went for a Camden Hells, I went for something I'd not seen before, Brixton Breweries 'Electric IPA'. It was boozy, hoppy, everything an IPA should be and annoyingly hard to drink slowly.

About the menu. The options for the batter was either panko breadcrumb or a light tempura. Both with a selection of rather novel non-classic flavours that one wouldn't normally associate with fish and chips but had obviously been proven to work very well.

I went for a lemon and basil tempura sea bream with a garlic truffle mayonnaise. It had so much flavour, and a deliciously fresh zingy batter to die for. The chips were chunky skin on wedges with a very crisp outer and an almost mash like interior, divine. Harry had the Cajun panko haddock (I think it was haddock may have been another), also very tasty. Our 'surprise' fish was Jamaican jerk haddock (I think). A slightly spicy jerk crumb with a hot sauce, great unexpected combination that worked very well. The odd choices of batter really did work, they all sounded amazing and the ones we had were. I concluded that I'd made the correct decision as I couldn't get enough of the bream. I will have it again, possibly even this Saturday. The sides were great too, minted peas, a sea spaghetti and samphire citron salad and a celeriac remoulade. A tasty selection of home made sauces and a small but expertly chosen selection of booze.

Good value, brilliant food, exceptionally friendly staff and an overall fantastically filling and delightful meal. An experience I'd recommend for all. Especially if you are partial to a good bit of fish and chips.

The fish is all sustainably sourced and delivered daily, straight from the boats in Cornwall.

the restaurants website

hookrestaurants

Camden Town Brewery

camdentownbrewery

Brixton Brewery

brixtonbrewery

Don't Judge a Book by it's Cover

Recently I've been drinking in my local Wetherspoon, The Kings Tun in Kingston. Other pubs are trying but the sheer selection of alcohol surpasses all other competition, plus it's cheap.

They have this beer called 'Devils Backbone', it is an American Pale Ale and one that I tried and enjoyed near the beginning of my pale ale phase. It's typical American pale ale, full of hoppy goodness and a moderately high level of booze. At less than £4 a pint, it's damned near impossible to go wrong.

I think it's fair to shed some light on how great Wetherspoon's really are.

It is so easy to criticise any Wetherspoon pub. I know they sometimes lack any form of atmosphere or character. Are usually full of people that spend their days and jobseekers benefits on beer rather than being productive in the slightest. They sometimes feel oppressive when you first walk in because of this but it is quite often something that in quickly overcome when you get to the bar. It is the same feeling you get when you are anywhere you are not regular or accustomed to.

It isn't until you break them down to every individual component that they all start to make sense, and you begin to see how great a pub they truly are, and close to the mark they are in what I would consider to be a perfect pub.

I wrote a piece about 'What's wrong with Wetherspoon's' a few years ago and recently published it on this blog. It was a brief explanation of why I would consider Wetherspoon's to be fantastic pubs and help people appreciate them for what they are.

More often than not, they are situated in prime locations, possibly due to the magnitude and wealth of the company or possibly better judgement of how vital location is to any business, more than likely a mix of both. Most of the ones I've been to, bar a few, are in 'heritage' sites. By heritage I mean an old landmark or architecturally historic structure of some sort. A couple of examples can be 'The Kings Tun' in Kingston, my local one, which in its former glory was a big old theatre. It's quite hard to see that from the inside but the outside is still its unmolested original self. Another example is the 'Coronet' on the Holloway Rd in London, it was an old cinema and even still has the old projectors that would have blasted out bright moving pictures onto the huge screen and the balconies where the more elite viewers would have sat.

Both examples might not be ideal or what we would associate as a classic pub but they are simply operating on function over form, substance over style. Who needs all these nooks and crannys when you can quite easily fill the space with tables and chairs or allowing more space for people to stand. The traditional booths and cubby holes and stained glass windows are replaced with shabby carpet, oil paintings usually depicting the history of the area on the walls and an array of modern booths taking up every spare inch of space along the side walls. Once upon a time they were dimly lit so as not to see how poorly decorated they were, now after a lick of paint and new fixtures and fittings they are all as bright as anything and not particularly cheery. That was not meant as a dig at the décor, more a simple observation and expression of my tastes and preference.

Obviously these are not the real or major selling points of any Wetherspoon pub or what makes a pub great in any way, simply observations of the overall venue.

As you might have guessed that I personally rank the general aesthetic of a pub quick high on a check-list of my idea of the perfect pub. The aesthetic or architectural beauty of the exterior or interior is crucial in helping create a pleasant and comfortable atmosphere for drinking. There are the odd cases where the venue doesn't necessarily have any external influence on the customers and the décor doesn't do anything to create or change the feeling of the place, but it certainly helps.

I could go on and explain almost every minute detail down to the hinges on the window frames or the latches on the toilet doors but I wont as it's boring. All those details add something to the bigger picture of the pub but are often so subtle they usually go unnoticed, until I point them out that is.

To me, bar far the most important aspect of a pub is its selection of booze, ranging from beers and wines to ciders, liqueurs and spirits. More importantly, how well the alcohol is kept. It's all well and good having an assortment of over 20 guest ales say, but if the lines are infrequently cleaned and the barrels aren't cellared correctly then it kind of eliminates the point.

In the case of most Wetherspoon's pubs, both are true. They have an extensive selection of alcohol, too large to list and are quite often on the forefront of any major revolution in alcoholic beverage. Of recent years, Sailor Jerry's spiced rum and the now massive gin craze possibly started by clever marketing by Hendricks Gin and Wetherspoon's in pushing their product.

If it's beer you're after and don't know of any decent 'craft beer' pubs, then any Wetherspoon establishment would be a safe bet. The alcohol is cheap (or should I say competitively priced), the selection is phenomenal and everything is kept well. The food is good, if not a little greasy but then I do tend to go for the fried things. If you're alone, it's the perfect place to relax in undisturbed comfort and to take full advantage of the now rare music-free pub. If you're with company it can be a perfect place to catch up and create any atmosphere that suits your or anybody else's mood.

On a side note. You have to admire the founder, Tim Martin for this beautiful monster he has created, Frankenstein's beast to the pub world, an amalgamation of every great idea of what pubs are and should be and putting it all together. This empire that helps promote and make available to all the wonders that are British beers and also doing generally fantastic things for the whole world of booze from international beer festivals, the introduction of imported spirits and anything helping make the world of booze a better place to be or be part of.

Plus what's not to like about somebody who is willing to take on a brewery as mighty as Heineken over a dispute, temporarily freezing all sales and orders until a resolution is found. Keep an eye out for further developments on this matter.

Link to the Wetherspoon website

jdwetherspoon

A link to the Devils Backbone website where you can find out more about their beers.

dbbrewingcompany

The Gradual Development of a Fantastic Pub

I've been drinking in a pub called 'The Druids Head', in the ancient market place in Kingston, for several years on and off. My early memories of the place are fairly distant and vague but I have noticed the clear progression over the last couple of years. Be it down to the management or a shift in focus on Greene King's part. When I say 'shift in focus' it isn't a dramatic change at all, I'm simply referring to something altogether subtle that I'm sure not many people would have even noticed, as much as me at least. A similar thing has been happening to Wetherspoon pubs, the assortment of beers, cask, keg and bottle or can, both domestic and international has grown so rapidly that you wouldn't be wrong in saying exponentially.

The change seemed to slowly come about with the introduction of more and more guest ales. Then the pace quickened with the addition of a few fancy 'continental' lagers and other beers on draught. The bottled beer assortment steadily increasing almost unnoticed in the background. It wasn't until the instillation of a 'Blue Moon' pump that I stopped and started paying attention. It is a beer I knew from travelling around the USA but had never seen it on draught here before, it isn't one that I enjoy I have to say. For some reason I can't get past an overwhelming celery taste that I find incredibly off putting.

In the couple of years following the introduction of Blue Moon and the more recent 'Craft Beer' explosion, the assortment has noticeably changed. Definitely for the better, I have to say. Greene King have in started brewing their own American style pale ale called 'Yardbird' which is actually a very tasty drop if I say so myself, one that I drink on a semi regular basis. They recently added Brew Dog's 'Punk IPA' and another beer that must have been so recent as in the last couple of months. Goose Island IPA. At £4.90 a pint it is not cheap but a beer that rare and delicious is surely worth the hefty price tag.

A pub championing both British and International beers is always a winner in my opinion.

A link to the Greene King website

greeneking

A link to the pubs own site

druids-head-pub