Beer In Amsterdam: In De Wildeman

I had enjoyed one evening in Amsterdam and gone to four bars, one of which (The Beer Temple) was really excellent. However it wasn’t quite enough: the one bar that had a really exceptional selection was of mostly imported beer and the bar itself was a Dutch take on an American style. Before I left I really wanted to go a recognisably Dutch bar that had a great selection of Dutch beers.

One good contender was ‘t Arendsnest (by the same people as The Beer Temple), however the one that really caught my eye from Tim Skelton’s book Around Amsterdam In 80 Beers was In De Wildeman. Mr Skelton says, “The ‘Wild Man’ is one of the world’s great beer bars and you should not leave Amsterdam without visiting it“. On my last evening I had a two hour window around dinnertime, so I decided to take the tram into town and follow instructions.

I found the bar relatively easily after wandering down a few busy sidestreets on a sunny Saturday evening, passing lots of people eating cones of chips and mayonnaise. When I get there it looked busy, with lots of people sitting outside and a large window opening into a small room that also looked packed. Fortunately when I went into the main bar it was only pleasantly busy and I was able to stand at the bar.

The interior, previously a distillery, met all my expectations: the walls cluttered with beer ephemera and a black and white tiled floor, in fact it’s probably quite appealing to tourists in that kind of aged “brown cafe” style. However where it differs from other brown cafes is in the remarkable selection of beer. There were 17 beers and 1 cider (Strongbow!) on tap. They had the solitary handpump I saw in my three days in Amsterdam, hosting Harviestoun Bitter & Twisted. I noted that the pumpclips on the back bar evidenced previous beers not only from Dark Star, Hopback and Gadds, but even Saltaire Brewery.

There are apparently 200 bottled beers available. A copy of the beer menu wasn’t immediately to hand, but the tap selection was so good I didn’t bother asking. I decided to start with the only Brouwerij de Molen beer on tap, Lentehop. This was a great, fresh and bitter IPA that was perfect for a first drink on a summer evening.

I finished it relatively quickly and moved on to Flying Dog In De Wildeman 25th Anniversary Farmhouse IPA which, as the name suggests, was brewed by the US craft brewer especially for this bar’s silver jubilee this year. I didn’t have a clue what to expect of a “Farmhouse IPA”, but found it slightly herby and more subtle in its hoppiness and aroma than the very punchy De Molen beer, but a very nice beer nonetheless, with a pleasant building fruity bitterness.

It tasted to me a bit like a very hoppy IPA that had mellowed in its old age, like a slightly aged bottle of Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA I’d had recently. Reading about it now, I can see why it seemed so different: it’s an unfiltered IPA made with Citra hops and a Saison yeast. I’d love to try it again knowing that, but I’ll probably never get the chance.

At this point, having had two strong beers and knowing my time was limited, I decided to have something other than an IPA. I’d already had four IPAs on this trip (two Dutch, one Danish, one American) and it occurred to me that it wasn’t exactly the most native style to the Benelux countries.

I decided to try Wildeman’s beer of the month, a De Proefbrouwerij Vicardin Tripel Gueuze (sp?), apparently a blend of two beers (um, a tripel and a gueuze). It had a really nice tart sourness and was a good final beer to enjoy as I looked around the bar which had quietened down a bit as people went home or out for dinner.

I reflected, whilst standing there, that I really, really liked this place. Great beer, friendly and helpful staff, a beautiful building and a fantastic atmosphere. I can see why it’s such an institution and I would entirely agree with Tim Skelton’s analysis: In De Wildeman is one of the world’s great beer bars. I would add, from my still-limited experience, that Amsterdam is almost certainly one of the world’s great beer cities.

Beer In Amsterdam: The Beer Temple

After Schuim I moved on to my next bar, The Beer Temple, just round the corner and again quite centrally located near Dam.  This US-style craft beer bar was started by the same man as Cafe ‘t Arendsnest, a bier cafe that sells exclusively Dutch beers, a remarkable 150 of them.

The Beer Temple also claims to have 30 draft beers and 100 bottles, mostly imported and with a bent towards US and US-influenced craft beer (e.g. Brewdog, Mikkeller).  The draft beers are dispensed from a US-style bar, with the taps against the back wall, many with the large ornamental branded handles that you get in US bars.

There was an interesting mix of people when I went in, some American tourists or expats as well as Dutch beer geeks.  In fact there were two American lads sitting next to me in black suits and animal masks (one rooster, one gorilla) as part of a plan to surprise an expat friend on her birthday.  It was all going a but David Lynch, but fortunately  the reassuring bar staff were happy to talk about the selection, which they seemed to have a really good knowledge of.

The range of beer was great, as you can see from the blackboard of draft beers in the photo.  Imported keg beers included Great Divide, BrewDog, Flying Dog, Left Hand and Anchor: in fact it was interesting to note how well BrewDog fitted in here and I wonder how many casual craft drinkers in the US and abroad think they’re an American brewery.  There’s a further longer blackboard running along the side wall of the long, narrow bar.  I started with a glass of the house beer: Tempelbier, a nice, citrus-crisp bitter Dutch take on a US style IPA.

After enjoying the first drink (and cursing myself slightly for having a few beers before arriving here and thus limiting my selection) I asked what Mikkeller beers they had and was shown a selection of bottles including Devine Rebel.  However I was very interested to see that they had a bottle of Mikkeller Koppi Coffee IPA and was happy to pay 6 Euros for it.

This was a remarkable beer which seemed extremely appropriate for Amsterdam, given the association between coffee shops and mind-blowing substances.  I thought the coffee was really up-front in both the aroma and taste but there was a nice light hoppy fruity bitterness in there as well.  The combination of citrus hop and roast coffee bitterness was a revelation.  The thrilling but unusual mix of strong flavours meant that it wasn’t a quick drink, but I was happy to take my time and savour it.  In retrospect I should have tried some Orval cheese from the snack menu to go with it.

I did really enjoy my short visit to Beer Temple and it made me want to try t’ Arendsnest for an equally expansive collection of Dutch beers to explore the country’s own beers better.  However again that will have to be added to the list for my next trip to Amsterdam.

Unfortunately time was ticking on and I had to move on and meet my colleagues who were in a more typical Dutch brown cafe, Konigshut, after which we moved on to another, Cafe Van Daele.  The beer selection in both was more limited, but I was happy to end the night in a pleasant atmosphere, drinking a bottle of Palm then having a couple of genevers as a nightcap.

Beer In Amsterdam: Schuim

After leaving The Cracked Kettle, perhaps unsurprisingly I felt it was time for a beer.  I’d happily missed dinner in the hotel for the sake of this expedition so also needed to line my stomach.  I had passed Schuim (“Foam”) on Spuistraat and it looked like a nice arty cafe.  When I saw that Tim Skelton said it did good hamburgers in my newly-purchased Around Amsterdam In 80 Beers I decided to go for it.

The inside of Schuim is a reasonably large, high-ceilinged space with a selection of different furniture: big tables, leather armchairs, intimate tables for two with attractive lampshades hanging over them.  The walls were covered in a selection of classic cinema posters and there was a DJ booth in the corner.  This sunny Friday evening there a lot of customers were sitting out, smoking and chatting, so there were some free seats inside between some groups of apparently happy, relaxed drinkers.

It didn’t have a huge selection of beers when I went in (although they did have Brewdog Hardcore IPA), they have La Chouffe on tap.  I got a 25cl glass, ordered a burger and sat down at one of the big tables and started properly reading up on Amsterdam’s beer bars.  I enjoyed the La Chouffe, which proved very drinkable, but perhaps less interesting than the bottles I remembered.

I finished it and ordered a Blanche De Namur, a witbier that was served from tap with a slice of lemon and a pink plastic cocktail stirrer, the latter of which confused me.  I’m not a huge fan of witbiers generally but this was quite pleasant and the slice of lemon either complemented the fresh lemon flavour of the beer or caused it.  I didn’t have a non-lemon control beer to compare.

Whilst I was enjoying the beer, the atmosphere and the book, I was getting hungry and my burger was taking a very long time indeed.  When I asked the staff they apologised and explained that a large table had ordered just before me, which they had said at the time.  However I was given a free pilsner (I think it was a Leeuw in a Budels glass – nice but nothing special), and then after another 15 minutes the chef brought me out a plate of cheese, pickles and mustard and apologised for the delay.  They were very polite and helpful despite the delay and I remained in a good mood as a result.

When the burger finally came it was very nice indeed: tender, tasty, moist and crumbly, just like a good homemade burger should be.  I wolfed it down, dipping the chips in lots of mayonnaise to emphasise how acclimatised I was becoming.

I enjoyed Schuim and felt very happy to sit there on my own and pass the time, but by this point I was keen to move on to somewhere with a bigger selection.  In particular I’d been reading about a bar just around the corner that sounded very exciting indeed: a US craft beer bar called Beer Temple, on which more next time.

Beer In Amsterdam: De Bierkoning and The Cracked Kettle

I don’t know exactly why my employers decided to hold this year’s group conference in Amsterdam, but it initially seemed like an interesting experiment in dangling temptation in front of your staff.  However, in the end it was unusually well-behaved and good-natured; very far from the orgy of toking and poking that those with less faith in human nature might have predicted.

The frustrating thing about being taken somewhere as fascinating and beautiful as Amsterdam on a work conference is that you inevitably get plonked in an enormohotel a number of miles away from the city centre and handed a packed schedule that makes it very hard to escape the building.  Nonetheless I was determined to get into the city centre, and thanks to the tram network I managed to do so twice.

Initially armed only with a Rough Guide To Amsterdam and some personal recommendations, I got off the tram and headed towards De Bierkoning (“The Beer King”), a famous specialist beer shop centrally located near Dam that Rob from Hopzine had recommended.  Unfortunately it had just closed for the evening when I arrived, but I admired the selection of De Molen bottles through the window with a faint sense of relief that I didn’t have to fret about which of over 1,000 beers I could sensibly afford and carry around with me.   It looks like a great shop and I’ll definitely be back at some point.

I decided to try and find Gollem, Amsterdam’s oldest specialist beer cafe.  I was looking forward to visiting this small bar with a huge selection of beers.  Rather sadly, when I found it in an alleyway off Spuistraat it was also closed, but seemingly permanently.  The sign in the window was in Dutch, but suggested that whilst Gollem and a second Gollem in the de Pijp area had closed, their third bar, the larger Gollem Proeflokaal (tasting room) on Overtoom, is still open.  I added this to the list of places to try next time I came.

However I was very happy to see The Cracked Kettle open opposite the closed Gollem.   This was another excellent specialist beer off-licence and I was pleased to see a very large selection of primarily Dutch and Belgian beers.  I was spoiled for choice and began to realise quite how little I knew about Dutch beer styles.  I decided not to laden myself down with an armful of bottles for the rest of the evening and opted for just one: a Brouwerij De Molen Bommen & Granaten.

It’s a 15.2% Barleywine made with champagne yeast that came in a small bottle with the top already sealed with red wax.  It says that it should keep for 25 years, which is an admirably bold assertion.  Subsequently reading about the beer online, I now realise that “Bommen & Granaten” means “Bombs & Grenades”, which made it probably the least airport security-friendly beer in the world.  Now that I managed to get it back in Yorkshire without incident, it should be a nice souvenir of the trip until I lose patience and crack it open.

The other thing I picked up in The Cracked Kettle was Tim Skelton’s Around Amsterdam in 80 Beers.  Filled with photos, it has a page each for the 80 best bars and beer shops in Amsterdam and a suggested tipple for each.   It would turn out to be an invaluable guide for the rest of the trip, helping me to navigate and prioritise, taking me to a couple of brilliant (and open) beer bars.  I’ll get on to those in my next post.

Both The Cracked Kettle and De BierKoning have websites and deliver internationally, although I see that De Bierkoning’s is currently being revamped.

Beer For Birds: The Sparrow Bier Cafe, North Parade, Bradford

Bradford, for me, is an unknown quantity, an undiscovered country.  Despite living in Leeds for 7 years I’ve only been to the centre of Bradford a handful of times.  I know it has some good curry houses, a Media Museum and an IMAX cinema, however I’ve never felt the need to go to Bradford for a drink, in the way that I might get the train to Huddersfield specifically to visit the Grove.

However there’s now a very good reason to visit Bradford: The Sparrow Bier Cafe.  Started by Les Hall and Mark Husak, it officially opens tomorrow, but a little bird invited a few of us for a preview last night.

The bar is on North Parade, close to Forster Square station but also walkable from Bradford Interchange (map).  From the outside it looks minimal and sophisticated, with an elegant dark green frontage and a dapper little sparrow logo (called “Hercule”).  It’s actually a bit bigger inside than it looks, with a second seating area in the basement.

The ground floor was yet to be completely finished, with the floors still needing to be laid.  However you can see that it’s a classy looking place, with the kind of calm colour scheme and unifying design that the Port Street Beer House in Manchester has, and promising a selection of art similar to North Bar in Leeds.  There’s a good selection of music (I remember Love and Nick Drake) which adds to the atmosphere but doesn’t impede conversation.

The selection of beer is very good, including a wide range of American, Belgian, German and other bottles, some of which are regulars and others guests.  It’s also very cheap for what you get.  For example, a bottle of Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout is £4.15 and Silly Saison is £2.20.  By way of comparison, they would cost at least £3.50 and £5.85 in equivalent cafe bars in Leeds.  The train fare was starting to look like an investment.

There are six keg lines and four handpulls.  The kegs included two Meantime beers and three Bernard beers, including the really nice, bitterly noble hoppy Unfiltered.  The cask on this occasion included Thornbridge Jaipur, Ikley Stout Mary, Dark Star Original and Saltaire South Island Pale.  Again these were all very reasonably priced and you can look forward to seeing some exciting new UK craft beers on keg and cask in the future.

 

Beyond the excellent and reasonable beer menu there’s also a good selection of food: sandwiches, pork pies and olives amongst others.  It’s probably sensible to have something to eat because you’ll find yourself not wanting to leave until you’ve tried quite a lot of beers, some of which will probably be of considerable strength.

It was good to spend a few hours drinking and chatting with Rob from Hopzine, Fletch from RealAleReviews, Neil from Eating Isn’t Cheating, Keith Wildman from Sabotage Times, Martin Bell and Ian Garrett.  As is evident from Rob and Neil’s posts, we were all pretty taken with the place and didn’t have a bad word to say about it.

I wish Mark and Les all the best with The Sparrow.  You can see that they’ve put a lot of effort, thought and love into the place and it deserves to succeed.  You owe yourself a visit.

Temperance & Temptation

Leeds, as well as having a significant brewing history, also has a close connection to the Temperance movement. The Band of Hope, a Christian charity to promote temperance amongst working class children, was formed in a building close to the Tetley’s Brewery in 1847.

As for myself, I wasn’t supposed to drink at all last week, less on moral grounds and more as part of an attempt to look as stunning from behind as Pippa Middleton by my wedding day. You won’t be surprised to hear that this didn’t really work out: I did have a few drinks and the gossip mags have yet to latch onto me as the next big thing and give me a hilarious abbreviated name (N Middy?).

On Tuesday, Matt from North Bar contacted me over Twitter and asked if I wanted to come to a Nøgne Ø focus group that evening. Nøgne Ø is a Norwegian brewery whose beers, in my experience, are rarely seen in the North. In the words of Jarvis, “So what else could I do”? Other members of the group included Dean from Mr Foleys, Rob from Hopzine, Alice “Alice Porter” Porter and Neil from Eating Isn’t Cheating.

I won’t waste your time expanding on Neil’s account, but suffice to say it was good fun, we chatted about beer and drank some really good ones. I enjoyed all the ones I tried (Pale Ale, Saison, India Pale Ale and Porter) , but special mention should go to the IPA which was a stunning rich, hoppy and malty US-style IPA.

Unfortunately I had to make an early exit before the Imperial Stout, but I’m told it was the best beer of the evening. Hopefully I should have a chance to have it again, as Matt says that he has some of the higher ABV Nøgne Ø beers coming in for North Bar, which should be lovely based on this selection.

North Bar was my downfall again later in the week, as they had Kirkstall Brewery’s first beers: Pale Ale and Black Band Porter. Kirkstall Brewery, started by Dave Sanders (formerly of Elland) is the newest brewery in Leeds, and shouldn’t be confused with the historic Kirkstall Brewery that closed in 1983.

Both beers were very good: the Pale Ale a light refreshing beer, but with satisfyingly robust and lasting bitterness for its strength; the Porter even better, with exactly the complexity you’d want from the style. Mr Foleys had both in this week too which sold out very quickly, and on the basis of these first two beers I’m looking forward to seeing more from Kirkstall. A very promising addition to Leeds’ beer scene.

Mr Foley’s caught me out on Friday with a Hardknott Infra Red (first time I’ve had it on cask – a great hoppy beer with rich forest fruit maltiness, but I think it might be even better suited to bottle or maybe keg?) and a RedWillow Smokeless, a great smoked porter.

So basically my attempt to avoid the beer failed, although I did have less than half my recommended weekly units (and if you ask me, got pretty good value for it). This week’s lesson: If you want to lay off the beer, don’t live in Leeds. It’s a great place to fall off the wagon, though.

This week doesn’t bode much better though, as the exciting Sparrow Bier Cafe opens in Bradford City Centre! I think West Yorkshire is ganging up on me.

Mr Foley’s Wonder Emporium

Dean Pugh, the manager of Mr Foley’s Cask Ale House in Leeds (and in his spare time, homebrewer, beer geek and good bloke), has been working to build on and improve the range of beers on offer at Mr Foley’s for some time now, and recently I’ve really started to notice how this Mitchell’s Of Lancaster pub has evolved into a beer bar worth getting properly excited about.

You can tell a really good beer bar (for me at least, and probably beer geeks generally) because you go in and find it really hard to make a decision; not because of the lack of choice, but rather because there are too many things you really want to try, like on the first day of a good beer festival. This has been my experience of Mr Foley’s recently, whose support for cask beers from interesting local microbreweries in particular does a real service to West Yorkshire’s beer scene.

I went in last Thursday after reading Leigh’s mention of RedWillow Ageless Double IPA on his blog. However when I saw what was on the bar, I also wanted to try the other cask beers I hadn’t tried before: Revolutions’ Smiths-themed non-royal wedding beer “…It was really nothing”; Elgood’s Pageant Ale; Hardknott’s Atomic Narcissus; York Brewery’s Pride Of York. That wasn’t even the limit of the selection, which included a total of nine cask ales, the remainder being Burton Bridge’s Burton Porter; and York’s Ghost, Terrier and Guzzler.

And that wasn’t the end of it, because the keg selection is really quite impressive as well. A recent addition is a permanent BrewDog pump, which had both IPA Is Dead Nelson Sauvin and New Punk on; other pumps included Leffe, Amstel, Marston’s Oyster Stout, Erdinger and Pilsner Urquell.  Then you could move on to the fridges, which include a lot of interesting craft bottles including 4 BrewDog bottles; 6 fruit beers; at least 8 US craft beers before getting onto the Belgian, German and Czech ones.

I think Mr Foley’s can confuse people a bit as to its identity: it’s quite a large pub in the old Pearl Assurance offices, spread out over at least four assorted levels.  It has bigscreen TVs often showing sports. The telly brings (well behaved) sports fans in for football, Super League etc., but manages not to keep the (pro-quiet pub) CAMRA types away: the ticking is too tempting. You also get the after-work crowd from surrounding council and professional offices, society meetings in the back room etc. It’s usually pretty buzzy and with a wide range of people.

On the subject of beerticking, on this occasion I went for the Hardknott Atomic Narcissus: a “pride”-type best bitter at 4.2%. It had a solid amber to brown colour with a creamy head. There was a rich forest fruit to slightly savoury aroma I can’t quite place. It had a definite but mellow bitterness, with a solid malt base. The RedWillow Ageless Double IPA at 7.2% had a really lovely tropical citrus aroma, a smooth, rich mouthfeel and a good lasting bitter aftertaste.

As if to emphasise that the great range of cask beer isn’t just a happy coincidence, the pumpclips behind the bar showing upcoming beers are pretty exciting too: a selection of beer from Summer Wine; Hardknott; Mallinson’s; Rooster’s; Hopback; Elgood; and Castle Rock.

Now, if I’ve not convinced you with enough lists, you can head over to Mr Foley’s It’s Your Round page to see what’s on the bar right now. Just remember not to take Mr Foley’s for granted: it’s unquestionably the best pub in Leeds for cask ale and now it’s got a few more strings to its bow.

UPDATE: Dean has subsequently informed me that there’s a further expansion of the range about to take place in the coming weeks, with more than 30 new bottles in the fridges and two new keg lines, one each for US and UK craft keg.  The US keg line will host the likes of O’Dell, Sierra Nevada, Victory, Brooklyn and Anchor (which would be wonderful) and, even more excitingly, the UK keg should include Summer Wine and Magic Rock! 

For more on Mr Foleys see this post from Ghost Drinker.

Dales Way Pubs: Bar T’at, Ilkley, West Yorkshire

Our last day on The Dales Way was from Burnsall to Ilkley, which took us beyond the Yorkshire Dales National Park and also from North into West Yorkshire, having started in Cumbria five days before.  We were fortunate to have another sunny day to wander the last 12 or 13 miles down the Wharfe past caravans at Appletreewick, the Yorkshire Dales ice cream van at Barden Bridge, sunbathers at Bolton Abbey and a family of ducklings on the pavement in Addingham.

Ilkey was the end of the Dales Way for us, although it’s the start for most, and many people stay there for the night before they set out on the walk.  After reaching the official end/start of the walk at the Old Bridge, we walked into town for a beer.  There’s actually a pub just by the end of the walk: Ilkley Moor Vaults.  I’ve visited once, after being caught in the sleet, and found both decent beers and an open fire.  However it was a warm day and I intended to court Mary Jane: there’s no better way to do so than Bar T’at. 

Bar T’at is a Market Town Tavern pub, along with Arcadia, East of Arcadia and Veritas in Leeds, Cooper’s in Guiseley, The Narrow Boat in Skipton and nine others.  The churlish might accuse them of being overly similar; one could more accurately say that they’re consistently very good, with nice food, helpful staff and a wide selection of ales, from Yorkshire micros and regionals in particular.

Bar T’at didn’t disappoint on this Thursday afternoon and at the end of our walk we quickly sank a couple of glasses of  the lovely, pale, hoppy Ilkley Mary Jane before I also decided to try Goose Eye Chinook, another local pale beer (from Skipton) with a satisfyingly crisp, bitter aftertaste.  I began to notice that one can’t walk through the Dales for five days without picking up at least a hint of a country aroma (i.e. sheep shit with a hint of wild garlic) so it was time to catch the train back to Leeds for a bath.

I hope that this short series of posts is useful for those planning the walk (although make sure you take the Cicerone guide and all the OS Explorer maps). If you are, good luck and I hope you’re as fortunate with the weather as we were.  I really enjoyed our five days on the Dales Way, although the aches compounded throughout the week and by the last afternoon every stile earned a swear word.  Good beer and food in friendly pubs along the way helped a lot, as did the roaring fire at The White Lion at Cray and the warm bath at The Red Lion, Burnsall.

The selection of beer in most places might be more limited to two or three pumps, but you shouldn’t find it difficult to find a Yorkshire bitter such as Timothy Taylor’s Landlord or Black Sheep, or a pale hoppy session beer like Mary Jane or Copper Dragon Golden Pippin to slake your thirst, if you’re very lucky something from Hawkshead Brewery like the wonderful Windermere Pale.  Trust me, no drink in the world could be better in the circumstances.

Read all the other posts in this series about The Dales Way here.  If you’ve enjoyed these posts, why not read Andy Mogg of Beer Reviews’ post about beer and pubs on the Coast To Coast walk (and his walking blog linked to in that post) and Mark Fletcher’s posts about The Pennine Way on Real Ale Reviews.

Sorted For Ales & Pies: The Hop, Sheffield

I was interested to read in The Pubbing Advertlican that Osset Brewery are to open a Hop in Sheffield, after the first two music-meets-real-ale bars in Wakefield and Leeds. I think the Hop on Granary Wharf in Leeds is a good bar, with a selection of Ossett beers on cask as well as a number of pretty good guest ales. As can be seen from the purloined images in this post, the railway arches in which it is based are decorated with a selection of exposed brickwork and images of the great and good of Yorkshire indie (one of whom, the drummer from Embrace, is a part-owner).

 

 

Importantly for me, The Hop is a cask ale pub that looks a bit modern and trendy, so I can drag my work colleagues to it without most of them pissing and moaning about it being an “old man pub”, as if I think cask ale is best enjoyed in the presence of a farting, half-dead pub dog and a deeply worn, formerly-red patterned carpet covered in discarded betting slips.

 

 

When I was at Sheffield University I lived very near where the new Hop is opening on Devonshire Green. In fact I did most of my (hardly nutritionally balanced) grocery shopping in the Budgens that formerly used to be on the site, although I confess to having resorted to the excellent noodle bar next door on a more-than-weekly basis.

 

 

Sheffield is a fantastic place to go out for a drink, especially nowadays, but as I recall, the only really decent pub in that part of town at the time was The Devonshire Cat, which was very good but surrounded for about half a mile in each direction by the likes of Vodka Revolution, Varsity, Yates’ Wine Lodge, Flares, Walkabout, Wetherspoons and All Bar One, as well as a few definite “old man pubs”. Certainly when I was there, a pub like The Hop would have been a very welcome addition.

Groovy 360 degree photos of The Hop Leeds liberally nicked from their website. For more on The Hop, see this post by Ghost Drinker.

Dales Way Pubs: The Red Lion, Burnsall, North Yorkshire

The penultimate day of our Dales Way (in reverse) walk was pleasant and sunny but seemed unusually long as we were really starting to feel the distance covered.  We walked from Cray to Bucken down a rocky path (and past the sadly closed-down Buck Inn), then along the river from Buckden to Kettlewell, before climbing onto the moor for a long section to Grassington.  We stopped in Grassington for a soft drink and a Yorkshire Dales ice cream before heading along a gentle and pretty final section along the river to Burnsall.

For our final night The Red Lion was a touch of luxury.  We’d booked a bigger room on a mid-week deal and got a lovely one with a very large bed and a really posh bathroom.  Although it was a Wednesday the restaurant was fully booked by the time we checked in around 5.30pm, but we got a seat in the bar where the same menu was available.  I had fish and chips done well whilst Kate had cod with peas, broad beans and salsa verde (she’s posher than me).

For dessert, Kate had a chocolate, pear and frangipan tart and I had a selection of Yorkshire cheeses.  I appreciated the way the cheeses came not only with some nice chutney and crackers, but also some fruitcake.  I’d not come across the cheese and fruitcake combination before I came to live in Yorkshire, but it’s brilliant.

The beer was also good.  Again the selection was more limited than what you would find in Leeds, but I was very happy with an Ilkley Mary Jane, which I’d been looking forward to having as we got nearer to Ilkley.  It’s a really good light, hoppy, pale session beer and perfect with fish and chips after a very long walk on a hot spring day.

The breakfast was nice as well, offering a good selection including smoked haddock and poached eggs.  I opted for a full English with poached eggs, which is presumably twice as healthy as having the same breakfast with fried eggs.

This section of the walk offers a number of options for accomodation in Kettlewell, Grassington and Appletreewick as well as Burnsall, but The Red Lion was just what we needed on our final night.