On the way there we enjoyed a couple of pubs in Newark. First of all the absolutely superb micropub, Just Beer, which was one roomed, friendly, had lovely local cheese and crackers and a great pint of Haf Gwyn from Cwrw lal in Clwyd, which had just the right amount of hops to quench a thirst brought on by two hours motoring south. Then a couple more in an old favourite, the Tynemill (Castle Rock) owned Fox and Crown where Castle Rock Harvest Pale was impossible to ignore. Old favourites are sometimes just the ticket.
We finished off at the Live and Let Live on Mawson Road which was perhaps a bit less up market than the other two - OK a bit more tatty - but with beer from Oakham - a common brew in Cambridge - served in tip top condition and a landlord, who once we praised the quality of his beer, warmed to us immensely and was chatty and welcoming. Thus we had little to cause to leave.
So we didn't, until we were chucked out at eleven. Three good pubs in one evening were quite enough for such old men as us.
We did see many of the recommended City Centre pubs the next day, but we didn't stay long enough to see them open, but on the whole, we didn't feel we'd missed out.
21 comments:
sounds lovely, what was the spoons beer and burger like around them parts?
two of my locals... There are about 5 more pubs in that area with a similar offering. Glad you found they were heaving, the traditional boozers round here are generally heaving every day of the year. They're the future I tell you. Good beer and cheap homecooked food, what more could you ask for?
no-one uses the spoons in Cambridge, its out of the way and there are too many decent pubs to choose from.
bought back memories, the back streets you talk of, Gwydir Street etc, were private dwellings rather than flats, had a mate who bought one for £30000 back in the late 1980s, god knows what they are now, wonder if the Alexandra is still going, lovely Irish landlady, Mary I think.
Three good pubs you visited there, and plenty more good traditional backstreet boozers in Cambridge.
The Alexandra Arms is still going, but very different from when Mary & Graham O’Hare ran it - the tradtional interior has been replaced and it's now 'The Alex' with the tagline 'Burgers Brews Banter'. Not a bad pub, but perhaps reflects the values of the houses which are now over ten times what they were in the 80s.
The 'Spoons during the day are frequented by old men who can get two pints of John Smiths for the price of a pint in most other pubs.
To be pedantic, "back to back" houses are ones where literally the back wall of one house is the back wall of another, so the houses only have a front door. You can still see these in some places in the West Riding, but not really anywhere else.
Traditional two-up, two-down terraced houses with back yards are not "back to backs".
So you missed the very excellent Pint Shop? A shame!
Thanks Mudgie. Point taken.
Clare: So many pubs, so little time!
Personally I wouldn't put the pint shop in my top 10 Cambridge pubs. Pretentious and horribly overpriced, you can get better beer, cheaper, and in a more relaxed environment elsewhere.
To be honest there is very little reason to ever stray into the city centre. Its set up for tourists and over-privileged students. The best pubs are all in Petersfield and Romsey, the real heart of the city.
Glad you enjoyed the Live & Let Live. Always my top-recommendation for Cambridge. Most consistently well-kept beer in town, despite stiffening competition on the quality front. Nothing fancy, nothing pretentious, just good beer.
py, yes the Pint Shop is expensive. But think of a) the location, b) the cost of that build, c) they don't stock dirt-cheap-to-buy-beer that they sell at inflated prices to subsidise the good-beer-drinkers. As a result those of us with more limited budgets can't enjoy the beer there quite as much. It is a conundrum. I do think they offer the best diversity of keg beer in town however and will always pop in and see what's on the list and have a couple of small glasses of beer. The Blue is coming up to par on keg though - with Ben & Jethro being far more experimental with the line-up - the Blue is the only other pub truly representing the full diversity of good beer in the UK right now. (Obvious disclaimer: I sell beer to both these establishments!)
Anyway, that bit of defensiveness aside - totally agree that the Mill Rd area is still where "it" is at for a proper Cambridge pub-crawl and good beer.
I'm hoping more alternatives pop up and provide a few more options and perhaps even a little price competition. Albeit this keg stuff is just expensive at the moment... now if anyone ever spots a nice little spot I might be able to open a micro-pub/bar let me know. A basement space would be fantastic... I've some ideas there, albeit am already a bit too thinly spread. Business partner anyone?
Cheers,
Yvan/JollyGoodBeer
If I hadn't just got a new job Yvan, I'd take you on :-D
The Abbey area needs a pub, you could tuck in between McDonalds and Papa Johns.
The Pint Shop is great if you're local (and like that sort of beer and aren't on a tight budget) but that's because there's nowhere else in town except maybe the Blue where you can reliably get much of the same sort of stuff. But I wouldn't say it's an essential stop-off for someone visiting from out of town - the selection is basically a slightly less adventurous[1] version of what you'd get somewhere like Craft Beer Co or at any of the Taps or anywhere else in that sort of line, so unless you're visiting from rural Suffolk or something then it's unlikely to be an eye opening experience. Apart from the scotch eggs.
Other than that, yeah, good choice of pubs. I'd have gone with the Cambridge Blue rather than the Geldart, and there's plenty of places you could have moved on to if you were around for a few days, but I can't fault the Kingston or the Live.
[1] sometimes there's really good stuff, often shortly after they've had a delivery from Yvan, sometimes there's a lot of fairly standard stuff from the likes of Camden and various takes on "craft lager" and not much that actually seems worth the prices
py, I had to look up 'Abbey' - don't know the ward areas that well. I have had my eyes on Newmarket Rd... nothing great on that stretch really, Wrestlers is the top-pick I guess. Quite a few odd little shops/etc at the town-end of the road that might have potential for conversion. Right opposite the huge new Travelodge! But does all the new development inflate rents... or is it still down-market enough to be affordable...
McD's... that'd be the "dirty burger" box ticked then.
A sad stretch of dead/dying-pubs. Also note the selection of former end-of-terrace pubs between Newmarket Rd and Riverside! Mostly houses now.
used to live round there, 100s of flats and houses full of young professionals, no pubs for half a mile in any direction. its a pub dead zone.
Safest bet would be Mill Road to be honest. Always room for another little pub on the circuit.
The trouble with somewhere like Newmarket Road / Abbey is that Cambridge people mostly seem to be extraordinarily myopic and lazy, and apart from Mill Road, tend to think that going more than ten minutes in the wrong direction past the centre is the living end. And while some people would make the trip for really great beer, a lot of them will be going out in groups with people who don't see why they should hike out to the middle of nowhere when there are perfectly nice pubs in the centre...
I think that area does have room for a decent pub, but it'd be somewhere more like the Red Bull or the Carpenters Arms ie a relatively cheap, friendly local with presentable food and decent but unadventurous beer.
I use the Spoons in Cambridge py, at least the edge-of-town Tivoli rather than the horror of the Regal. As well as good beer for less than £2, it also has bar staff who know and engage with the customers.
Tandleman, glad you enjoyed Cambridge; you picked 3 representative pubs.
Glad you enjoyed Cambridge, 3 good pubs that I also use regularly. I do also use one of the Spoons, (the Tivoli), which gives very good beer for less than £2 and had staff who actually engage with you.
Sorry - perils of posting on a train from Sheffield
yes, I agree DaveS. It could easily host a decent community pub but I don't think it would be what Yvan is looking for.
A little micropub right on Mill Road would go like an absolute bomb.
Yvan - I'm not sure I should give you more ideas, but have you thought of going for the other angle and running an IndyMan / CBR / B^3 style fest? As well as being a Good Thing in itself, it might be helpful to demonstrate that there's a relatively untapped market of people who are willing to go the extra mile to try the best possible national beers (and also that there's a local distributor who can get hold of them for you...)
We've taken over this thread a bit :)
py is correct - what I have in mind is not a typical boozer. I'm not into typical. It'd be a more modern take on the micro-pub idea. Wet-led. Good beer. Maybe very simple foodage. Combined with growler fills and bottles off-license.
IMBC-type-event for Cambridge. Yes, this, definitely. I wish... it takes a lot of time, and a good lot of money, to get off the ground. Or a big risk of goodwill in getting brewers to stump-up or provide credit to an unproven event. I'm at IMBC as usual next week... I may pick some brains. But IMBC has existing successful bar owners behind it and Mancs has a strong beer community - not a position of comfort I have alas. Basically I need more heads. There's only one of me and I and my small amount of savings are already spread a bit thin trying to get a so-far unproven business off the ground.
Both ideas are complementary to distribution of course, from a promotions PoV. And a microbar would be fantastic for stock flow/control. (My closest friends I can shift excess beer to are all either of a conservative leaning or working under difficult GP targets.)
Ha ha, yes, I guess that from a punter's point of view you see a bunch of people in a room with beer and think "well, that can't be too hard to organize can it", without really thinking about the logistics and the finances involved in getting it all in the same place at the same time!
Not sure what the difficulty of getting a license for a new place in Cambridge would be, though.
Anyway, you're right, we should probably stop hijacking the thread.
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