The weekend’s gigging had gone well, Nick had dropped off the van and had sent me a text informing me that he was studying in the Conan Doyle (York Place, 4/5/8/10/11/12/15/17/26/44/45). A couple of hours later, I was wandering into town, on a mission for something to eat when I decided I’d chance phoning him.
“You still in the Conan Doyle mate?” I asked.
“Of course I am!” came the reply. I made a quick detour to the cash machine in the Omni Centre, and had a pint of Belhaven Best in my hand within about 3 minutes. Happy days. There’s not much to say about the Conan Doyle, but I can thoroughly recommend the salt and pepper scampi.
The Stag’s Head (Broughton Road, 13/36) was our next port of call. Strangely enough it was decorated in Manchester City paraphernalia. Obviously Canonmills’ local team.
Across the road was Maclachlan’s ( Canonmills, 8/17/36), a pub which served its namesake beer. Roughly the same consistency and creamy texture as Belhaven Best or indeed any other 70-/- ale, it had a pronounced hoppy bitterness to it. Very drinkable. Also there was a nice soundtrack on in the gents (see “Quote of the day” feature, below)
Smithey’s (Eyre Place, 36) followed on. With its carpeted interior and centre bar, it was distinctly reminiscent of the Artisan out London Road way. I had a nice pint of Harviestoun Bitter and Twisted, Nick had a Deuchars.
I described The Orchard (Howard Place, 8/17/23/27) as looking decidedly beige from the outside. Nick hounded me about my overuse of that word, so I shall describe The Orchard as thus: The Orchard appeared beige from the outside, but from within, although the walls were painted a shade of off-white not too far from beige, the pub itself was not as beige as I had imagined it to be; not beige at all, in fact. That’s enough laboured beige uses now, but I can tell you that it exceeded my expectations – I’d always remembered it as the Northern Bar, but having seen its bei-sorry, off white exterior I had feared the worst. Nick said that he could quite happily have sat there for a good while after a day’s work. Is there a higher recommendation? Well yes, probably there is.
After taking a break to grab some food, we hopped on a bus and headed back up towards Broughton St. We were joined in The Barony (Broughton St, 8/17) by local folk singer Flora Cook. There was a folk quartet going on in the corner (well, I say folk loosely, as there was a guy on the drums, someone playing upright bass, a singer with one of those deep American FM-rock drawls and a guy fretwanking a Telecaster) who made a fairly solid attempt to drown out any conversation we might have dared to have. Given the standard of myself and Nick’s joke repertoire, this may have been to Flora’s benefit.
Mather’s (Broughton St, 8/17) is owned/run by the same folk who have its doppelganger on Queensferry St. The idea is the same, but the Broughton St one is a bit more conducive to sitting. I was going to make a joke about bums, but given the area we’re dealing with, that’s probably not a wise idea.
UNTIL THE NEXT TIME…
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “A dose of diarrhoea…how romantic” – automated loop in the gents’ toilets, Maclachlan’s.
CUMULATIVE PUB COUNT: 65
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