Posts Tagged ‘propel’

For a few weeks some years back, I worked in Blackfriars and would walk to Holborn tube as my route home because it took me past The Seven Stars in Carey Street, behind the Royal Courts of Justice. After only a couple of nights of stop-offs in this lovely compact pub, the landlady had named…

When visiting the hybrid bar/shop Indiebeer in Holloway Road in north London early one Saturday evening before Christmas with my 18-year-old daughter, we had to navigate around various prams and buggies as a large group celebrated a young child’s birthday. My overriding response was that it was good to see the independent venue run by…

Competitive socialising is something I’ve harboured reservations about for a number of years on the back of the flood of money that has gone into the category to inevitably fund some rather dubious concepts. This has led to saturation in some sub-categories. On top of this, there is the problem in the UK of there…

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. It certainly was in The Audley public house in London’s Mayfair last week. When wandering in around lunchtime, I was greeted by a row of small chalkboards on various tables stating “reserved @ 2:30pm”.  It is one of the most annoying aspects of pub-going at this time…

The hanging basket-adorned Cross Keys pub in Endell Street in Covent Garden was a regular stop-off point for me before heading for an Indian meal at the sadly long-gone Neel Akash restaurant (replaced by Sainsbury’s in Hanway Street). Another plus point was that it also stocked the rarely seen roast turkey and stuffing crisps from…

Whenever my family and I venture out into the country on short breaks, my priority when booking the accommodation is the close proximity of a pub. This caused slight issues on our recent cycling trip, as the lovely Horse & Jockey in Manton, Rutland, was about 50 metres away from the Airbnb that I’d booked,…

Visiting Battersea Beer festival in 1987-88 was a revelation for all drinkers present that year because it was the first time a truly golden ale had been produced in the UK. Exmoor Gold from Exmoor Ales in Somerset created a buzz in south west London because it was a lip-smacking departure from the ubiquitous brown…

When the smoking ban came into force in 2007, one of the biggest impacts was the widespread move by pub operators to introduce food into pubs that had previously never ventured further into the realm of selling solids than offering crisps and peanuts. It was a revolutionary period that made the once smoky, boozy environments…

Settling into the bar of the Royal Forest pub on the edge of Epping Forest on a gloriously sunny Friday evening ahead of a meal in its restaurant would have been a real treat in itself for my family, but we also had the added enjoyment of being only feet away from our comfortable rooms…

In the halcyon days of the craft beer revolution, a trip to the Beavertown Brewery on an industrial estate in Tottenham for its beer festivals was a real treat. They became increasingly popular, and queues down the road to enter became commonplace as growing numbers of drinkers were attracted by the impressive range of beers…