I arrived in Sheffield after a decent enough journey, despite the rain, and OK, most of these photographs were taken the next day, but it was dark and wet, and a mobile phone isn't too good at taking night-time photographs, at least mine isn't...
Started off with food, not a bad idea, meeting up with my good friend and ex-colleague, Debra, at Mama's and Leonie's, my favourite restaurant in the whole wide world! It's a great place to eat, where you can either book an upstairs table, take a risk to find an ad hoc table downstairs, or sit at the bar and watch your food being prepared, and chat to staff, when they're not too busy, that is...
Most of the staff stay here for years, an excellent sign, and it was great to chat to Debs, of course, but also to their Head Chef, John, and the second John, and other chefs I know, plus with the lasses who, though not all working this one shift, obviously, I still saw a few, including ones I've known for more than 15 years, the lovely Josie and Tracey, who is to become a mother to a second child. The food is excellent too, me eating my usual Warm Chicken and Bacon Salad, which is heaped into a big dish and takes a while to finish! If in Sheffield, this is the place to eat; situated between the Crucible and the Winter Gardens.
Most of the staff stay here for years, an excellent sign, and it was great to chat to Debs, of course, but also to their Head Chef, John, and the second John, and other chefs I know, plus with the lasses who, though not all working this one shift, obviously, I still saw a few, including ones I've known for more than 15 years, the lovely Josie and Tracey, who is to become a mother to a second child. The food is excellent too, me eating my usual Warm Chicken and Bacon Salad, which is heaped into a big dish and takes a while to finish! If in Sheffield, this is the place to eat; situated between the Crucible and the Winter Gardens.
Next, I was meeting up with Will at the Bath Hotel behind the old Glossop Road baths. This used to be run by the ebullient Brian, who has since leased out the bar to Thornbridge Brewery, who have taken over a few pubs in Sheffield. This used to be Will's local, but not being enamoured by ales flavoured with American hops, unlike me, he has been put out by the change, life. Indeed, I hardly recognised anyone there!
So, 6 ales served by handpump, including 3 guest ales and 3 of their own. The 3 Thornbridge ales were Black Harry, a 3.9% deep dark red coloured ale, with a very roasted malt flavour and a nutty aftertaste at £2.70 a pint; Hopton, a 4.3% pale bitter, though a bit thin, with a hint of roasted malt in the flavour at £2.90; and the 4.8% Jaywick, an 'American Pale Ale' at £3.10 a pint, which was my favourite of these, not a surprise, with a fruity aroma and peach flavour coming through. Also, if you drink here before 7pm, you get a 10% discount if a card carrying CAMRA member, sadly, it was just too late in the evening to take advantage of that deal.
We briefly popped into the Red Deer, just off Glossop Road, which appears to now be a student pub, though there have always been many students in here, just even more now... very busy and very loud (I am getting older, tsk...). This used to be run by another reyt miserable old git, but now has a 5% discount for card carrying CAMRA members, so not so bad, though we didn't notice until we were already drinking. Anyway, from their array of ales, we both chose well known ales, which suggests it is a pubco pub, though I cannot be bothered to confirm that. Will drank Moorhouse's Pride of Pendle (4.1%) and I enjoyed the Yorkshire brewer, Copper Dragon's Golden Pippin (3.9%), another favourite brewer of mine!
We visited the University Arms, that used to be a staff social club at the university, but is now a public house, primarily to chat with the manager and partner, Tom and Brigitte, so I was surprised a wee bit to find out they are no longer here, but they now have a pub that I will mention in my next Sheffield blog. It was quite busy, not so noisy though, so we could talk quite easily. We drank Welbeck Abbey Red Feather, an OK 3.9% bitter (well, that's how I made the note) and the reliable Crouch Vale Brand X, a 4.5% lovely pale fruity bitter with grapefruit aroma and flavour.
Our penultimate ale house for the night was The Hop, Devonshire Green, a relatively new pub (used to be a wee supermarket, there's irony for you) run by Ossett Brewery, where I first drank in on my last visit to Sheffield, and which was very noisy with music this time. It's big and spread out, with a much younger clientele at this time of a Friday night. Anyway, there was an array of Ossett's own ales, as you'd expect, plus a few guest ales. The Ossett ale I tried was the Big Red, a venture away from their majority paler ales, 4% and a well-balanced maltier ale than I usually enjoy.
I also had to try the Steel City Unholy Trinity, a 6.66% (and if you believe they can be that accurate, you're very naive) very dark beer, with chocolate and coffee in the taste, and very tasty, I have to admit. Indeed, I've never had an ale from the lads who brew under the moniker, Steel City Brewing, that I've disliked; they do like using hops!
Our final destination of the evening was another pub with loud music, and mostly younger customers than us, though we do like to mix with the youth of Sheffield to maintain our own youthful outlook! The Old House in Division Street, sells its ales at a reduced price in the late afternoon/early evening, but, of course, we were much too late for that again; so we missed out on 3 deals in total that night... Anyway, I cannot remember what Will drank, but I had another decent Yorkshire brewery, Salamander's Piper's Son (4%), pale, and not quite so bitterly hopped as I usually like, but I seemed to enjoy drinking it...
Anyway, that's it for now, but more to come in Part II, cheers!
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