Questions from the Floor
We aim to have something for most people, hence we do also stock lager, wine, gin, whisky, soft drinks etc. However we do not sell anything that is not the best possible example of its type, and everything on the menu is hand-picked by Chris or Susie as being something they would be happy to drink themselves.
We don’t have a kitchen so we are unable to do hot meals. However, we do sell pork pies and scotch eggs from Taylors of Darlington, and vegan friendly sausage rolls from Bean Social, as well as Pipers Crisps, peanuts and pork scratchings.
**Please note we are only able to provide crisps from the above list at present due to unpredictable trade patterns due to COVID-19**
Maybe – we always welcome suggestions, and where we can, we do take them up. As we use a large number of suppliers both direct and wholesale, we have the ability to get a lot of different things. However, there are many beers that are simply impossible to get, not produced for cask, or are out of production.
Well, really you can’t. However, we always have a range of styles – for example, we aim to always have something dark (porter, stout, dark mild etc), something pale and low strength, something hoppy and something malty. We then cellar them until they are at their best – if the Landlord or Landlady would take it back to the bar elsewhere, then it definitely won’t go over ours. It is very rare that we won't be able to find you something to your taste.
We do our best to make sure you get a beer you’re going to enjoy in the first place and encourage you to ask for a sample or ask the staff if you're not sure. We also try our best to catch the last pint out of a cask before it goes over the bar, so hopefully this won’t ever be an issue. However, if you do have a problem please speak to the staff and they will change it for you.
It’s one of the hardest and most fun jobs! We buy based on all sorts of things: we aim to buy roughly 50% local and 50% non-local, and within that we aim for a range of styles as described above. We like to get old favourites back, but we also love getting new beers by recommendations from customers or from brewers we trust are going to be good. We buy from the larger regional breweries like Timothy Taylors or Fullers, as well as tiny breweries - our only criteria is that we think the beer is great.
We do not generally take bookings during the post-lockdown times as we want the pub to feel as normal as possible, and popping in for a spontaneous pint is a big part of that. However, if you have a specific requirement (eg. due to limited mobility) please get in touch and we will do our best to accommodate you.