From http://iansaleadventures.blogspot.com/
Day 2 of our sporting (and drinking) weekend started off with a trip back in to the West End for an early lunch at the famous Guinea Grill (http://www.theguinea.co.uk/) in Bruton Place. It's a pub - but a fairly posh one - it is Mayfair after all. The front is the pub part with a fine dining room at the back. Dave Williamson and I used to spend many a lunchtime there in the mid 70's, standing in the street, quaffing pints of Young's and eating their near legendary steak pies. We worked in the same building and drank at the same pub, but didn't know each other until a decade later when we both joined Banchory Squash Club.
This was a bit of a nostalgia trip for both of us - and we weren't disappointed. The ale was good - the only change was the addition of Kew and Bombardier to the usual Bitter and Special - and the steak and kidney pies awesome (as my American relatives would say) - the price of the pies was, however, even more mind-boggling than the Pimm's at Wimbledon - a staggering £9 each. We had to do a double take on that one, but eventually agreed that we had to do it - it's only once every 35 years after all!
Here's Dave and I enjoying our pint at the trestle tables outside:
We then headed west again and caught the train out to Henley, where the Regatta was in full swing. We had a quick wander round and took in the sights before finding a pub that had the Brazil - Holland match on TV. It's very much a Brakspear's town - we had our pints in the Old Bell, but we spotted lots of others within easy reach. In fact, there's a Brakspear's Ale Trail which has 10 of their pubs on it - all within a few hundred yards of each other:
There were plenty of other pubs in the town centre - within the same small area we spotted the Argyll, the Horse & Groom, Red Lion, Rose & Crown, Three Tuns, a Wetherspoon's Lloyd's No1 whose name I missed, and the old Henley Brewery, which now seems to be a gastro-pub/upmarket restaurant - witness the Hoorays leaving for the Regatta:
The next building along from the Henley Brewery is the slightly oddly named "The Henley Brewery Mineral Water Works".
Good town for a pub crawl - lots of boozers within easy staggering distance - but you have to like Brakspear's.
Next we headed back to Reading to catch the Nadal - Murray match on the big screens at the Three Guineas, adjacent to Reading railway station. The result was disappointing, but not the beer. Eight ales on:
- Caber Tosser
- GK IPA
- Rudgate Ruby Mild
- Mauldon's White Adder
- Fairfax Special
- Banks & Taylor's Black Dragon Mild
- Sharp's Doom Bar
- One other forgotten - which was our first!
We needed a rest now so we grabbed some food and 40 winks before heading down to the Nag's Head (http://nagsheadreading.com/home.php)- a favourite from my last trips to Reading. Twelve ever-changing ales, with each pump having its own mini blackboard above it, providing details of now and next. Some pretty unusual (to me) beers too:
- Abbot
- Art Brew
- 2 Stonehenge beers - Danish Dynamite & Great Bustard
- Dazed & Confused
- Charlie's Angel
- White Horse - Wayland Smithy
- York - Terrier
- Fagins
- All Over (yet another World Cup ale)
- Triple fff - Alton's Pride
- Tring - Mansion Mild
Later on, they changed one of the beers and put on Blue Anchor's Bragget - the first ever time I've seen beer from the famous oldest brewpub in the country (Helston, Cornwall) anywhere but in the Blue Anchor itself.
Having worked our way through virtually all of the previous ales, we didn't really have the stomach for any more beer, but couldn't turn down the opportunity to try the Bragget, so the locals witnessed the slightly absurd sight of us ordering a half pint in two separate glasses!
The Nag's Head is the finest example of a good community pub I've seen - if you're ever anywhere near Reading, it's well worth a detour.
More to follow.
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