Cambridge

Alexandra Arms, Gwydir Street , Cambridge

iknoweno , , , , , ,

Half way between Mill Road and East Road, the Alexandra Arms has been through some refurbishment over the years to finally arrive at the current comfortable incarnation of wooden floors, two levels of bar and an extensive beer garden with semi-covered areas. This came into its own last October for the AlexFest music event, featuring many local bands including the highly regarded Centimes, Fred’s House and Goldstar.  I was impressed with the friendliness of the staff welcome to this event (I remember these things!) and I will be back there when it is repeated later this year.

Back inside there is a well-presented menu with an emphasis on gourmet burgers and the kitchen is a visible and integral part of the pub layout. At the bar  there is an array of real ale from Greene King and its satellite breweries on display, with some intriguing guest ales too. Next to each tap there are small jars of samples of each ale, which seems to be a growing trend so you can assess the shade of goldeness or darkness of your choice. On my last visit this taste guide led me to a pint of Buntingford Golden Drop (4%) which had a bit of bite to it despite its gentle colouring. There is also the option of having your pint in a handled glass or the perfect symmetry of a straight glass, not a difficult choice for most consumers but quite a nice touch.

So it is a pleasant community pub, with space for larger groups to meet and eat together and very importantly to me there is a real commitment to live, local music.

 

Home

The Mill, Mill Lane, Cambridge

iknoweno , , , ,

As the recent winner of CAMRA Cambridge and District pub of the year 2015, The Mill is flying high, especially now the sunny weather is appearing and customers can spread out onto the grass area behind Darwin College.

The pub has a pleasant interior, a mixture of  light and shade with a snug room, piano and a prominent bar. In the past I have found the beer to be on the expensive side, but with the city centre/tourist location this was no surprise. On this visit however a pint of Buntingford Twitchell (3.8%), after 10% CAMRA discount was £3.24, can’t complain at that!

The radiogram at one end of the bar has a large selection of LP records that are carefully curated by the bar staff, Elvis Presley Hits and ‘Graceland’ by Paul Simon were featured on my visit (spot the connection….). They have responded in style to the resurgence of vinyl, to the slightly older customer the rituals of album sleeves, dust on the needle, jumping grooves and turning over the disc after four songs creates endless fascination and conversational controversy.

The clientele expect to find food in a pub like this and there seems to be an appetising menu available, fish and chips was a popular choice.

I will be back there soon, sitting on the grass or the wall looking over the punts on the river Cam, it’s a good place to be…

 

http://themillpubcambridge.com/

Devonshire Arms, Devonshire Road, Cambridge

iknoweno , , , , ,

Cyclops, Pegasus, Justinian, Orpheus, Minerva……the poetically named beers from Milton Brewery a few miles away are a very good reason to drop into the Devonshire Arms. Go in on the way to the railway station or meet friends there and linger for the evening.

Since opening in 2010 the Devonshire has been popular in the main ‘beer quarter’ of Cambridge, the cosmopolitan and much-loved Mill Road and its side streets.  This is definitely a pub for the real ale connoisseur, who is always pleased to find a good well-kept selection, with prices on the low side. There are also guest ales, some unusual bottled beers and a bar clear of some of the more depressing corporate lagers. The interior is sparse and dark, there are high back seats and panels separating some of the tables and the ceilings are high so the pub seems surprisingly spacious. Floors are old bare wood and there is a small outdoor area. The food that passes by seems appetising and unpretentious but not the main business of the pub.

Milton Brewery have reinvigorated the Haymakers on the other side of Cambridge and hopefully at some point the rebuilt Queen Edith in the pub desert in the south of the city….watch this space…

 

https://www.individualpubs.co.uk/devonshire/

http://www.miltonbrewery.co.uk/

The Boathouse, Chesterton Road, Cambridge

iknoweno , , , ,

The Boathouse fortunately survived the recent fire that caused major damage to the adjoining pub The Tivoli and has now fully reopened.

Last Saturday the pub was buzzing: free-of-charge downstairs were four musical acts, mainly acoustic troubadours but also a full electric performance from highly-regarded Cambridge band The Motortapes. There was music upstairs too as this pub has an excellent function room, discretely hidden away but easily accessible and bookable for parties, events or sometimes used as part of multi-venue music festivals. In my experience the arrangement of bookings, food and additional bar provision is all very well organised.

Back in the main pub downstairs it is very much a Greene King standard food and drink venue, with a modernised interior but retaining some interesting features such as ends of boat-race type boats hanging from the ceiling, a small snug room and an excellent stepped terrace down to the river Cam out the back, perfect for early summer evenings. The bar area is quite small but the friendly staff work it efficiently, finding their way around the forest of beer dispensing machinery that seems to grow in height in pubs such as this with every refurbishment. It would not be a prime beer destination pub for me, but in amongst the high-rise high-tech taps was the more traditional and very drinkable Belhaven Grand Slam, a 4% amber beer brewed for six nations rugby watching.

I will continue to visit, especially as they seem to be showing a big commitment to live music.

 

http://www.gkflamegrill.co.uk/locations/boathouse-cambridge

 

 

The Castle Inn, Castle Street, Cambridge

iknoweno , , , , ,

The town of Southwold on the Suffolk coast is a relaxing place to visit, one of the special features being the Adnams brewery right in the centre. Some of their excellent beers are available in many East Anglian pubs: The Castle Inn next to the historic Castle Mound in Cambridge is an Adnams pub carrying a large range and seeing the array of taps takes me back to good times spent in Southwold (and its pubs) through my life.

Walk in and you realise that you are in a ‘proper’ pub. Wooden floors and fittings, genuine old features, all a bit dark and timeless. The main bar is in the centre, serving the front traditional area and two more secluded rooms. Don’t despair if it seems full, it is actually quite a large pub, there is an upstairs space too and a substantial terrace with seating outside. Prices are what you might expect in this part of Cambridge just outside the city centre, but for the quality of the beer and the surroundings any slight premium is worth it.

No distractions of fruit machines and TV screens, instead there are books to borrow and occasionally some interesting choices of background music and of course, lively conversations. The menu boards sound tempting, as does the food you see being taken around but I must admit the only meal I have eaten in here was the simple perfection of fish finger sandwiches, sometimes that’s all you need to supplement a quality pint or two….

 

http://thecastleinncambridge.com/

The Wrestlers, Newmarket Road, Cambridge

iknoweno , , , , ,

As you leave Cambridge city centre along Newmarket Road you encounter a strange mix: a stretch of wide tree lined boulevard, surrounded by bland retail outlets, recently built giant budget hotels, bus lanes, endless traffic lights and a giant Tescos. In amongst this unattractive background there are a few gems: the Leper Chapel (reputably the oldest building in Cambridge), Cambridge United’s Abbey Stadium (almost as old?) and in an area where pubs have been demolished and converted there is still the Corner House (musical oasis) and dating from 1897, The Wrestlers.

The future of The Wrestlers seems ensured, it has carved a niche as a supreme provider of Thai food, and every time I venture in there are plenty of customers. It deserves its reputation, the food is excellent (try the king prawns..), reasonably priced and efficiently served. Your order is freshly prepared, so if the wait is longer in busy periods the staff will give you an accurate timescale for this.

In the meantime, the beer is always worth sampling, although it is on the expensive side, even for Cambridge (around £4 a pint). Try a pint of  delicious Hook Norton ‘Lion’, a bronze (golden-ish) 4% beer, along with five other guest ales and the house beer, the powerful Adnam’s Broadside. There are plenty of lagers and a ‘craft beer’ too (a subject I will return to…). The staff seem keen to encourage the traditional pub aspect of the Wrestlers, I was offered a taste of the beer while deciding, always a good sign.

It is mainly a pub for passing through to eat, the lights are a bit too bright and tables can be booked out long in advance so you may end up standing at the bar rather than a comfortable collapse into an armchair, but I assure you that once you have eaten there you will definitely go back….

 

http://www.thewrestlerscambridge.co.uk/

 

The Hopbine, Fair Street, Cambridge

iknoweno , , , , ,

Easily overlooked down a side street near the Grafton Centre, the Hopbine was opened again three years ago as a re-energised free house. It is a large pub with distinct areas, pool at one end, armchairs and relaxation space in the middle then mostly tables for dining at the back. Food seems to be a popular feature (including dishes cooked on volcanic rocks at your table) but does not dominate the ambience of the pub, when eating there recently in the sacred ‘friday-after-work-best-time-of-the-week’ slot the quality, service, choice and price ticked the boxes perfectly well.  This is important, many pubs and restuarants will fail on at least one of these criteria creating that little bit of unwanted tension between customer and venue.

But enough of food, what about the beer? Offering a taste of a beer before you commit to the pint is such a simple and civilised gesture it should almost be the law of the land (perhaps it is, but ignored by most places?). At the Hopbine the friendly and experienced bar staff realise the significance of this and ensure you are happy with your pint. The 10% discount for CAMRA members helps the happiness too. The beer is fine, temperature good and the real ale and cider on offer changes quite regularly. Around Christmas there were festival beers served straight from the barrel, always a treat (especially the 8% brew that not surprisingly I can’t remember the name of…)

The staff seem to have made their modern versions of compilation music cassettes to challenge the identification skills of the listeners, no surprise that this pub is linked to The Portland Arms, the premier pub/music venue of Cambridge.

So it is a traditional drinking and eating pub along with a good array of quizzes and events (including wine and gin tasting, separately.) There is also a loyalty card available for discounts. The dark wood lined interior hopefully will remain that way and the varied clientele who drop in after work and many other times of the day will continue to be pleased with what they find….

 

http://www.thehopbine.co.uk/

 

 

 

 

St Radegund, King Street, Cambridge

iknoweno , , , ,

The Moon Under Water is a fictional idealised pub described by George Orwell in a 1946 essay, a pub based on the basics of ale, food, convivial company and attention to important details.  Before refurbishment the St Radegund  possessed many of these attributes, in a timeless environment of intimate size, with unique features….a six inch wide table, signatures of regulars burnt in the ceiling, a cluttered back of bar with cassettes, CDs, jars of nuts, books and guides and random pillars and barriers dividing the dark drinking space. The beer was excellent, especially the poetically named delights from the Milton Brewery.

So what has changed?  Well principally the whole pub is now higher and lighter with more windows exposed and the ceiling raised, the burnt signatures have gone and the bar has moved and been tidied. A long-lost fireplace has appeared, though not hosting a fire yet. Milton Brewery beers seem to have gone. Some of the original tables and wall decorations have been retained, such as the history of the Saint, sports team photos and a picture of Vera Lynn as this pub has an appreciation society…

The atmosphere is still buzzing, the regulars and others having enjoyed the six nations rugby viewed on the usually discretely hidden television above the bar. The size of the pub is a strength, it is the smallest pub in Cambridge. If I was a visitor to the city I would feel very lucky that I had found this compact gem, but as a long-time resident I can’t help but feel that something has been lost…

 

https://twitter.com/radegund