After what seemed like an absolute age away from the pub, a week or so ago The Management convened in The Balmoral (Dalry Road, 2/3/4/25/33/44) for a few jars, accompanied by Greig Blenheim (making his first appearance in a number of months – seemingly he wasn’t happy about his name constantly being spelled incorrectly) and Nick’s flatmate Colly. The Guinness was good, the barmaids weren’t bad, the booths were comfy but if I’m going to be really picky, I didn’t like the blue neon lights above the bar.
Most places we’ve been in so far have had fairly respectable clientele – ok, they may be complete and utter jakeys (quiet, you at the back) but they’ll usually keep themselves to themselves and offer nothing more offensive by way of conversation than the odd grunt or a bit of drivel falling onto their chin. It was therefore nice to go somewhere less civilised: a Hearts pub. Robertson’s (Gorgie Road, 1/3/25/33), to be precise. Now it didn’t seem that bad from the outside, just a few punters lagered up and singing karaoke, but when the first thing that someone says to you at the bar is, “Alright mate, fuck the Pope”, you know you’re in for a treat. There were interesting additions to the lyrics of Neil Diamond’s ‘Sweet Caroline’, there were interesting characters aplenty and there was the first blatant breach of the smoking ban that we’d witnessed. Being a big time Rangers man, I don’t think it was as much of a culture shock to Greig as it was to either Nick or myself.
For those of you who are nitpicky (and/or actually read this), you’ll notice that our Resident Statistician’s latest thrillingly informative collection of facts and figures states us as having visited 75 pubs, but the last sub-total was a mere 73. This lack of consensus is due in equal measures to his over-eager nature and my lackadaisical approach to anything he tries to tell me. Following this entry, you may consider the situation rectified.
Until the next time….
CUMULATIVE PUB COUNT: 75
Sunday, 24 February 2008
Thursday, 21 February 2008
An Update From Our Resident Statistician
I thought it was about time I subjected you all to another statistical update. In the last 43 pubs we have had a bit of a rearranging in the leader board. So, after 75 pubs we have:
Nick’s top three drinks so far:
Belhaven Best – 22 pints
Guinness – 17 pints
Deuchars IPA – 9 pints
Rodney’s top three drinks:
Belhaven Best – 26 pints
Guinness – 17 pints
Deuchars IPA – 9 pints
So far, Nick has tried 18 different beers and Rodney 19.
More importantly we have had plenty of changes in the league table of pubs:
1=The Management - 75
3.Adam Johns (!!!!!!!) – 10
4.John Murray – 8
5.Phil Brough – 7
In that time previous leaders have fallen to the following places:
9.Greig Bingham – 5
15=Ian Davidson – 3
Finally, bus route with the most pubs visited so far is still the Number 12, with 18 pubs eligible.
It’s about time that more folk joined us out and about! You must have a local somewhere we can visit...
Nick’s top three drinks so far:
Belhaven Best – 22 pints
Guinness – 17 pints
Deuchars IPA – 9 pints
Rodney’s top three drinks:
Belhaven Best – 26 pints
Guinness – 17 pints
Deuchars IPA – 9 pints
So far, Nick has tried 18 different beers and Rodney 19.
More importantly we have had plenty of changes in the league table of pubs:
1=The Management - 75
3.Adam Johns (!!!!!!!) – 10
4.John Murray – 8
5.Phil Brough – 7
In that time previous leaders have fallen to the following places:
9.Greig Bingham – 5
15=Ian Davidson – 3
Finally, bus route with the most pubs visited so far is still the Number 12, with 18 pubs eligible.
It’s about time that more folk joined us out and about! You must have a local somewhere we can visit...
Monday, 18 February 2008
PORTOBELLO (and not a mushroom in sight)
Most people choose to go to the seaside when the sun is out. Being slightly contrary folk, we decided the best time to for the Pub Challenge’s first visit to Portobello was on a freezing day in mid-January, when it was pishing it down. We were accompanied by the flying duo of Adrian and John, John having (intentionally?) missed his flight that morning (excuse: drunk the night before, slept in) and decided that the best way to spend another day up north was to hit a few pubs. Fair enough.
The Plough Inn (Portobello High Street, 15/21/26/42/49) was the first place we saw after getting off the bus and visiting the ATM. I’m a bit of a fascist when it comes to lager, preferring good imported stuff to a lot of the crap you find in most pubs – and also on a freezing day you can hardly taste the stuff. During the winter I like to drink heavies or pale ales – and the Plough Inn had none of the above. A pint of Guinness it was. Nick had the same – “This is going to be a really slow pints”, he had stressed on the bus out to Porty, before necking it in ten minutes. Just to rub salt into the wound from the previous night, they were reshowing the Spurs/Arsenal game, and this pleased John no end.
Stumbling out of the Plough Inn we noticed that we had gone past a pub called The Galleon (Portobello High Street, 15/21/26/42/49), which looked ropey from the outside. The view from the outside, however, was nothing compared to what we saw when we got in. The back room called itself “The Black Chicken Lounge”, and the clientele consisted of one woman (who had a strange likeness to Grandma from Thunderbirds) and her dog, which kept trying to hump Nick’s leg. Nick doesn’t like dogs. Tom Jones was blasting on the jukebox as we entered, and was swiftly followed by The Carpenters. There were a couple of other 60s love songs, The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen (things were going well) - and then we were shocked with Bon Bloody Jovi. Now if there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s Bon Jovi, and so there was only one viable option: put money in the jukebox and stay for another pint, much to Nick’s disgust. Given that the jukebox consisted of 60s standards and country and western (plus the obligatory power ballads compilation – hence the Bon Jovi) , myself and John took over the controls. This is what we came up with:
GLENN CAMPBELL – WICHITA LINEMAN
DON McLEAN – CRYING
BUDDY HOLLY – THINK IT OVER
ROD STEWART – YOU WEAR IT WELL
THE EAGLES – NEW KID IN TOWN
THE CARPENTERS – HURTING EACH OTHER
THE ZOMBIES – SHE’S NOT THERE (interestingly listed by our resident statistician as “The Way She Does”)
ELVIS PRESSLEY – SUSPICIOUS MINDS
DEL SHANNON – HATS OFF TO LARRY
THE SHIRELLES – WILL YOU LOVE ME TOMORROW
THE SMALL FACES – ITCHYCOO PARK
Brilliant stuff. As much as we were tempted to stay on, the old wifey had returned to the jukebox and was queuing up at least £10’s worth of requests. A quick visit next door provided some extremely fresh tasting haddock (and not so fresh tasting chips), and then it was along to the Forresters Arms (Portobello High Street, 15/21/26/42/49), bigger than either of the other pubs and slightly less downmarket. There was a beer garden out the back, but we didn’t fancy sitting our there in the sleet, and so we watched some of the African Cup of Nations instead.
People had things to be doing, and so we headed back into Leith for our final pub of the evening. The Volunteer Arms (Leith Walk, 7/10/12/14/16/22/25/49) is famous for being the pub in Trainspotting in which Begbie is playing a game of pool with a killing hangover before a local hardman enters…you know the rest. Sadly there was no such action during our brief stay, just a pint of Caley 80 -/- and a packet of bacon fries. Worth a visit though.
UNTIL THE NEXT TIME….
CUMULATIVE PUB COUNT: 73
The Plough Inn (Portobello High Street, 15/21/26/42/49) was the first place we saw after getting off the bus and visiting the ATM. I’m a bit of a fascist when it comes to lager, preferring good imported stuff to a lot of the crap you find in most pubs – and also on a freezing day you can hardly taste the stuff. During the winter I like to drink heavies or pale ales – and the Plough Inn had none of the above. A pint of Guinness it was. Nick had the same – “This is going to be a really slow pints”, he had stressed on the bus out to Porty, before necking it in ten minutes. Just to rub salt into the wound from the previous night, they were reshowing the Spurs/Arsenal game, and this pleased John no end.
Stumbling out of the Plough Inn we noticed that we had gone past a pub called The Galleon (Portobello High Street, 15/21/26/42/49), which looked ropey from the outside. The view from the outside, however, was nothing compared to what we saw when we got in. The back room called itself “The Black Chicken Lounge”, and the clientele consisted of one woman (who had a strange likeness to Grandma from Thunderbirds) and her dog, which kept trying to hump Nick’s leg. Nick doesn’t like dogs. Tom Jones was blasting on the jukebox as we entered, and was swiftly followed by The Carpenters. There were a couple of other 60s love songs, The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen (things were going well) - and then we were shocked with Bon Bloody Jovi. Now if there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s Bon Jovi, and so there was only one viable option: put money in the jukebox and stay for another pint, much to Nick’s disgust. Given that the jukebox consisted of 60s standards and country and western (plus the obligatory power ballads compilation – hence the Bon Jovi) , myself and John took over the controls. This is what we came up with:
GLENN CAMPBELL – WICHITA LINEMAN
DON McLEAN – CRYING
BUDDY HOLLY – THINK IT OVER
ROD STEWART – YOU WEAR IT WELL
THE EAGLES – NEW KID IN TOWN
THE CARPENTERS – HURTING EACH OTHER
THE ZOMBIES – SHE’S NOT THERE (interestingly listed by our resident statistician as “The Way She Does”)
ELVIS PRESSLEY – SUSPICIOUS MINDS
DEL SHANNON – HATS OFF TO LARRY
THE SHIRELLES – WILL YOU LOVE ME TOMORROW
THE SMALL FACES – ITCHYCOO PARK
Brilliant stuff. As much as we were tempted to stay on, the old wifey had returned to the jukebox and was queuing up at least £10’s worth of requests. A quick visit next door provided some extremely fresh tasting haddock (and not so fresh tasting chips), and then it was along to the Forresters Arms (Portobello High Street, 15/21/26/42/49), bigger than either of the other pubs and slightly less downmarket. There was a beer garden out the back, but we didn’t fancy sitting our there in the sleet, and so we watched some of the African Cup of Nations instead.
People had things to be doing, and so we headed back into Leith for our final pub of the evening. The Volunteer Arms (Leith Walk, 7/10/12/14/16/22/25/49) is famous for being the pub in Trainspotting in which Begbie is playing a game of pool with a killing hangover before a local hardman enters…you know the rest. Sadly there was no such action during our brief stay, just a pint of Caley 80 -/- and a packet of bacon fries. Worth a visit though.
UNTIL THE NEXT TIME….
CUMULATIVE PUB COUNT: 73
Saturday, 9 February 2008
A LITTLE CHARM
Doctor’s (Teviot Place, 2/23/27/35/41/42/45) was the meeting place for the next leg of The Great Edinburgh Pub Challenge. We were privileged on this occasion as we were joined by fans of ours who had travelled from locations as far flung as Warrington, Huddersfield, Bournemouth and, er, Leith especially to take in a few pubs with us. Ok, so that’s not completely true as they were here to see The Bluetones at the Liquid Room, but that’s hardly the point. Anyway, back to the pub reviews. Doctors is alright, does a lot of good ales’n’stuff like that, the food is decent but it’s by no means brilliant.
Complaints were being made that there was no football on show in Doctors, so we headed round the corner to Oddfellows (Forrest Road, 2/23/27/35/41/42/45), a big cavernous place which used to be meeting place of a Masonic group (hence the name) aimed primarily at students. It was deserted whilst we were in, seemingly nobody was at all interested in watching Spurs beat Arsenal in the Carling Cup semi final. Nobody, that is, except for John who is an Arsenal fan. Bet you wish you’d gone with the folk music option now!
After the gig we went to the Bow Bar on Victoria Street, which is one of the best pubs in Edinburgh. Sadly our resident statistician will not have it included in the pub challenge because it’s not on a bus route – however I’ll tell you a bit about it anyway. Offering over 100 malt whiskys and serving probably about 7 real ales at any one time, the Bow is an intimate little place which retains cigarette mirrors on the walls and maps over the seats. Poor Mike Chadha found it a bit baffling though, ordering a pint of Budvar dark – tops. We accepted that it was a schoolboy error and did the honourable thing – laughed him out of the place. Nick, on the other hand was being asked by the bar staff to pipe down and mind his language. It would be nice if other bars would follow suit, to be honest.
Once everyone had had time to compose themselves and neck a couple of jars, we headed across town to 99 Hanover Street (Hanover Street – no surprises there – 13/23/27) where Mark Morriss was playing a solo gig, along with William Douglas (don’t have a link for you – sorry about that), who had opened in the Liquid Room. Mark ran through a few songs from his Fi Lo Beddow EP and closed with a cover of Teenage Fanclub’s “Alcoholiday”, the rest of us mingled and got a bit pished.
Whistlebinkies (South Bridge, 3/5/7/8/29/31/33/35/37/49/49) was the obvious destination when we left 99 Hanover St at closing time. I’m not a huge fan to be honest with you, having had a couple of fairly unpleasant experiences inside, but objectively it’s a decent place if horrendously overpriced. Usually there is live music on, but on the night of our visit the place was uncharacteristically quiet.
Until the next time…
CUMULATIVE PUB COUNT: 69
Complaints were being made that there was no football on show in Doctors, so we headed round the corner to Oddfellows (Forrest Road, 2/23/27/35/41/42/45), a big cavernous place which used to be meeting place of a Masonic group (hence the name) aimed primarily at students. It was deserted whilst we were in, seemingly nobody was at all interested in watching Spurs beat Arsenal in the Carling Cup semi final. Nobody, that is, except for John who is an Arsenal fan. Bet you wish you’d gone with the folk music option now!
After the gig we went to the Bow Bar on Victoria Street, which is one of the best pubs in Edinburgh. Sadly our resident statistician will not have it included in the pub challenge because it’s not on a bus route – however I’ll tell you a bit about it anyway. Offering over 100 malt whiskys and serving probably about 7 real ales at any one time, the Bow is an intimate little place which retains cigarette mirrors on the walls and maps over the seats. Poor Mike Chadha found it a bit baffling though, ordering a pint of Budvar dark – tops. We accepted that it was a schoolboy error and did the honourable thing – laughed him out of the place. Nick, on the other hand was being asked by the bar staff to pipe down and mind his language. It would be nice if other bars would follow suit, to be honest.
Once everyone had had time to compose themselves and neck a couple of jars, we headed across town to 99 Hanover Street (Hanover Street – no surprises there – 13/23/27) where Mark Morriss was playing a solo gig, along with William Douglas (don’t have a link for you – sorry about that), who had opened in the Liquid Room. Mark ran through a few songs from his Fi Lo Beddow EP and closed with a cover of Teenage Fanclub’s “Alcoholiday”, the rest of us mingled and got a bit pished.
Whistlebinkies (South Bridge, 3/5/7/8/29/31/33/35/37/49/49) was the obvious destination when we left 99 Hanover St at closing time. I’m not a huge fan to be honest with you, having had a couple of fairly unpleasant experiences inside, but objectively it’s a decent place if horrendously overpriced. Usually there is live music on, but on the night of our visit the place was uncharacteristically quiet.
Until the next time…
CUMULATIVE PUB COUNT: 69
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