At Home with John and Debbie

On Saturday, we celebrated my birthday earlier this week by spending most of the day in pubs. The plan was to crawl along Emscote Road from Warwick to Leamington.

We started as a hard core of me, Debbie, Gary and Jim, on the X17 bus to Warwick. We went all the way into Warwick because we needed a cash machine, then walked to pub number one: the Crown and Castle [1], stopping only to browse in a guitar shop.

We had a nice lunch from the Crown and Castle’s carvery, then moved on to a surprisingly busy Oak [2]. Next was the Millwright [3], a fine fine pub with three rooms including a nice snug, terrific range of beers and a sizeable beer garden we didn’t notice until we were leaving. Next stop was the Avon Tavern [4], a bit of a step down, but they had no qualms when Gary and Jim had to swap some vinegary spoiled bitter for palatable mild.

After that, the Lord Nelson [5] — another terrific pub in my opinion. The interior is done out like the inside of a ship, and it meets just the right point between theme pub and traditional boozer. When we reached the Simple Simon [6] it was shut, but the sign on the door said it opened at five: it was three minutes to five. We waited.

Jim was most taken by the fact that the Simple Simon had a “Bob Dylan Lounge”, and he was a big fan of their 60/70s music choices. Here, Phoenix joined us here, as did Steve.

We were getting hungry, and I came up with a brilliant plan. A quick pint at the Greyhound [7], then a short backtrack to the chippy, then eat our chips on the longish walk to the Star and Garter [8]. The Greyhound (for years, stained with the reputation of being the only pub in Leamington and Warwick that PFH was scared to go in) was perfectly pleasant, although Phoenix’s request for some bottled water was met by the barmaid with a quizzical raised eyebrow. We played pool. Gary’s too good. I’m useless. In the chippy, the last battered sausage was taken by the man in front of me. Rather than wait for a fresh one to be cooked, I had chips and curry sauce.

At the Star and Garter, Laura and MC were waiting for us. Troy arrived with his colleague Mikael, and JV arrived sans Suzanne. I like the Star and Garter very much, and we stayed there until the room started spinning, then walked the rest of the way home en masse.

I really enjoyed myself: thanks everyone for coming along.

I spent years thinking Emscote Road might be a good crawl, but wondered whether the distance between some of the pubs was too far. I’ve now done the route twice, and I reckon it works well. The chip shop tactic fills the dry stretch between the Greyhound and the Star and Garter nicely.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 15th, 2006 at 19:54 and is filed under Social. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.