Monday, 27 January 2020

Free Trade Inn, Ouseburn, NE6

Date: January 2020

Recently, I went for a drink at the Free Trade Inn in Ouseburn. When I say a drink I mean a lime and soda and when I say Ouseburn I think: wtf?!

If I had to pick a theme for the Newcastle entries on this blog, I would choose discovery. As I said in my review of the Brandling Villa, in my short time back here I’ve experienced things about the city that I didn’t know anything about when I last lived here over ten years ago. Ouseburn is just another example.

I’d been to Stepney Bank stables to watch my sister try riding a horse. I’d heard of The Cluny - in fact I think the ‘the band’ in my year at school may have even played a gig there - but I can’t say I’d done much exploring other than that. It certainly wasn’t anywhere I’d go drinking with my mates. Maybe we were too young, maybe we were too naive, maybe the plethora of options that the Ouseburn Valley now offers didn’t exist then. Who knows? I don't.

A bit of research shows that Ouseburn has had a ‘scene’ for a while, but it does seem to have developed in the time I’ve been away. Wandering through its dark streets on a mild January evening, searching for somewhere to get a refreshing glass of the green stuff, it was hard not to notice the tiny bars or the live music drifting out of the windows of old warehouse units. Had we not come across the Free Trade, with its stunning view of the bridges over the River Tyne, I might have been able to kid myself I was back in Hackney Wick.

The Guardian and other news outlets jumped on the Ouseburn train long ago. They’ve dubbed it the ‘Shoreditch of the North’. I haven’t been here for long enough to comment but, in order to be be truly Shoreditch,  it should have a bunch of people from the outlying towns and counties, freshly bundled out of the nearest mainline train station, clogging up the watering holes on a weekend because it’s the ‘in’ thing to do. I'll report back later.

For long time visitors, workers and residents in the Ouseburn Valley, I wonder if this spotlight comes as a blessing or a curse. Perhaps it's both. Gentrification in any city is a matter much too complicated to discuss on a blog that reviews a very specific non-alcoholic beverage served in British public houses but it is an important topic. I’ll post some links below.

The Free Trade is a proper pub with shabby decor. Not in a deliberate way, but because the furniture evidently hasn't changed for ages. Save for a small sign on the wall saying ‘no vaping’ it isn’t exactly clear what year you’re in when you step inside. It was a shame it was the winter because the garden is probably a great place in the summer to hang out and check out the view.

Having ordered a lime and soda for my friend and I, we settled down at a window seat to chat above the jazz music tones playing softly from the speaker.

Drinker's Note 1: This is a review of two different lime and sodas. My friend’s and mine. Please note that they were made by the same member of bar staff only a minute or so apart. We each had a sip of the other’s to compare and he has willingly donated his thoughts to the blog so as to support the people of the internet with their lime and soda based decisions.

Appearance: Both drinks looked similar. Pint glass, paper straws, no fresh lime, healthy green colour thanks to the free pouring technique demonstrated by the bartender. It made for an idyllic picture when placed on the bar against the backdrop of a lit up River Tyne in the window. I could have cried at the poetry of it. (Warning: photo provided. Try not to weep with joy)

Drinker's Note Two: What is the main thing you should know about lime and soda? The one intrinsic truth about a drink seemingly so simple to make? The very reason that this blog exists in fact (along with a stubborn nature and taking a joke too far). No two lime and sodas are the same! I can now confirm that this also includes lime and sodas made in the same drinking establishment, by the same bartender, using the same ingredients and being poured only a minute or so apart.

Taste: One was very heavy on the lime cordial, the other less so. The former tasted more like limeade, the latter more like sparkling water with a hint of lime. The cordial tasted alternative, maybe home brewed. Hipster, if you will. Both were certainly drinkable.

Price: £1.70 each. Not cheap. Perhaps you pay a premium for atmosphere.

 If there is a lesson to be learned here, it is that discovery and difference are things to be celebrated. They add to the diversity of our lived experience and make for a more vibrant world in which anything feels possible. Ouseburn is certainly a vibrant, diverse place and the lime and sodas at the Free Trade Inn do their bit to keep the flavour of the area alive.  

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Monday, 20 January 2020

The Brandling Villa, South Gosforth, NE3

Date: January 2020

Although I’ve been back in my hometown, Newcastle upon Tyne, for a while now I have to admit I've not been leading the most active social life. I seem to spend the vast proportion of my time either drinking cups of tea in my parents’ living room or looking at places I could otherwise be on the internet.

Occasionally this month however, I have managed to get out and about, including to areas I would never have even thought to go to when I was growing up here. Normally, I’d venture into town for a drink but, when I’ve looked just a little harder, I’ve found plenty of great places to go all over the city. One of these places is The Brandling Villa down in South Gosforth.

I don’t know South Gosforth very well. I’m from the West End and have usually had very little reason to come over this way but, on a recent Wednesday night, I went to meet a friend who has recently relocated back to the Toon and now lives in the area. It was my first trip to this pub and as I walked in, there was a distinct air of hipster chic.

 The music was great, there were people with beards accompanied by little dogs and there were posters on the walls advertising a Shinjuku style hump day hen party complemented with Izakaya style fried chicken. I assume this is a recent food trend but frankly I have no idea. My Wednesday night tea is normally a jacket potato with baked beans and cheese. Given all of this, I found myself wondering whether South Gosforth has always been a bit alternative. The meditation centre I walked past on my way home suggested so but, as far as The Brandling Villa goes, that doesn't always seem to have been the case.

Described in one article as a one time “boring old man’s pub” it appears to have changed a lot. The same article now describes it as an “amazing boozer” and “find of the year material” although I don't know what year that refers to. The pub seems to do everything from the aforementioned East Asian style chicken and decent music, to high quality beers and ales. Its own Twitter bio adds yet more to this cocktail of cool: “We do dogs, mate, and we do burgers. A pub.” it boasts. They’re not wrong. A quick browse of the website shows that it even has a food menu for dogs. There’s a lot going on here.

In spite of that, it’s still Dry January and I’m a vegetarian without a dog of my own, so at the time of visiting there was only one criteria I could soundly judge the place by. As this blog exclusively reviews lime and sodas you shouldn't have to think too hard about what that is.

Appearance: It came in a pint glass, which is always a good start. Sadly there was no fresh lime bobbing merrily on the waves of soda water and it looked as though the lime cordial was firmly rooted to the lower third of the vessel. High marks for traditional pub aesthetic, low marks for modern mixology.

Taste: No amount of finger stirs - no straws here, Greta - could infuse this drink with the evenly spread hit of lime flavouring I was looking for. I tried and tried and tried but nothing. This meant that I mostly drank soda water, which itself tasted a little flat. Then again maybe all soda water tastes like that. Could be an idea for another blog that...Sodathoughter? Or not.

Price: I can’t comment on the price of the lime and soda alone as I bought it together with an edgily branded cider on draught that my mate asked for. This is the North East though so let’s just assume it was cheap.

Sadly the lime and soda here is so so, which is bit of a shame really. The pub is not. Once the month is over and my appetite for drinking pints of beer from breweries that sound like they’re not real returns, I’ll be back here. South Gosforth eh… who knew?

Sources:
Pub website: https://www.brandlingvilla.com/

Better review of the pub: 
More info:
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Sunday, 5 January 2020

Founder's Arms, Bankside, SE1

For many people, January is a time of giving things up. You can give up animal products: Veganuary. You can give up resting: Run Every Day January. These days, I’ve heard you can even give up bodily grooming practices: JanuHairy. It all seems to be about starting a fresh and there are no shortage of fads or new routines going around at this time of year. Often accompanied by incessant over analysis of their merits/dangers on radio phone ins or TV chat shows.

Perhaps the most famous of all of them, however, is Dry January.

We’ve all heard of it. Many of us may have have tried and failed it. Sick of hangovers from Christmas drinking, we decide to take a whole month off the booze. Can’t be that hard, right? Well, according to a healthy living article I read on the internet - we all know the type - the ‘new year, new me’ thing is put to bed by the 20th of January, after which we all go back to stuffing our overfed, over watered faces with everything in sight as we sit on the sofa in front of the TV touching our freshly trimmed private parts.

However, if we are all doomed to fail at our resolutions by the third week of the first month of the year then surely we must currently be in some sort of golden period. Failure is coming but all in good time. For now there is still hope. Everything still feels possible. This really is your year. So, rather than dwell on the inevitable, why don’t we bask in the glory of these more innocent times instead and enjoy our new found lifestyle choices while they last.

I myself will be doing Dry January this year. Will I succeed? Unlikely but while I’m trying, I’ll certainly be ordering a lot more lime and sodas and reviewing them here. All that’s left for you to do, dear Reader, is to sit back, relax and let thoughts of refreshing, green bubbles carry you through the dark nights. Happy New year.

Date: September 2018

The year starts with an old review (Christmas was heavy for me too) but it does come with a picture to compensate.

 First records of a pub in the Bankside area bearing the name Founder’s Arms date back to 1839, meaning that there has been a pub here for about 181 years. It’s original address was 8 Holland Street but this was changed to 56 Hopton Street sometime between 1934 and 1938. The name apparently comes from the Glass Works or Foundry (in my short time researching this I learned that an operator of a foundry is called a ‘founder’) that were once in the area. More information on the pub, including a very good article on the history of the immediate area in general, are referenced below.

I have probably walked past this pub a good few hundred times on my strolls along the South bank of the river over the years. Situated in the picturesque environs of Bankside, in the shadow of the Tate Modern overlooking the River Thames and in full view of St Paul’s Cathedral, it’s somewhere I’ve always just dismissed as a place likely to be an overpriced tourist trap (which I feel justified in saying considering its own website states that it’s close to the ‘Harry Potter bridge’or the Millennium Bridge to you and me). As well as that, it always seems to be very busy, especially in good weather, so I had just assumed it would be pointless trying to drink there.

Like all good things coming, however, all I had to do was wait my turn. Nearly nine years in fact, for a Monday evening. An unusual last minute change of plans for the normal friendship group hangout session meant we met early in the week. This being the case, we were lucky enough to snag a table outside the pub on what was pleasant September evening. It being a Monday, a big one was never on the cards, which left only one choice of beverage for this millennial party fiend. In fact, I think everyone had a lime and soda. As the tourists sipped pints and ate overpriced fish and chips around us, we watched the sun go down over our glasses of the green stuff and discussed our lives.

Although willing to refresh themselves with an L&S, my friends are somewhat less keen on offering their opinions on it. Yet so rare is the occurrence that all of us are drinking a glass of the good stuff at the same time, that I couldn’t miss the opportunity for some triangulation of thought on the quality being served up at what is one of London’s best rated Thames pubs (https://londonist.com/2013/11/the-best-pubs-on-the-river-thames). What follows is a combination of all our opinions on this lime and soda. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the unwilling participants for their help.

My friend did the ordering and duly informed me that she was offered a choice of fresh lime or lime cordial. For those not familiar with my thoughts on this I would encourage you to read this blog entry from January 2019 at the Grocer in Spitalfields Market. Briefly, the obvious answer is that they should both be included. Coexisting in perfect harmony in the pint glass, each complementing the other. If only the world could have the same relationship with itself as fresh lime quarters have with lime cordial in soda water. Seemingly taken aback by the choice, my friend opted for lime cordial only. Given the shock of being asked questions to which the answer is obvious, they are forgiven.

Appearance: As per the picture, the drinks came in pint glasses. The sign of a proper pub. The ratio was good and the liquid was tantalising light green. Sat on the wooden table outside the establishment, it made for a picture perfect early week refresher. The lack of a straw (points for environmental friendliness) meant that I had to mix it with my finger. A tactic which, although I do not enjoy employing, is nonetheless often necessary as more and more places opt to do away with plastic accoutrements. The things we sacrifice for the planet.

Taste: Once mixed, the drink tasted good. The ratio certainly held up and there was a consistency between the amount of cordial to soda all the way to the bottom of the glass. The cordial itself was solid. It tasted like what I understand lime to taste like. Something that is to be expected when ordering a lime flavoured drink. It was also missing the chemical aftertaste often present in these artificially flavoured mixers, which is a bonus. Chewing on an ice cube or two, as the conversation progressed, I reflected on how, when you taste a good quality lime and soda, it really is a marvellous thing. One which would inspire even a regular drinker to try hard to stay teetotal as Dry January progresses.

Price: The major negative about this drink was the price. Given the location of the Founder’s Arms it’s unsurprising to report that, at £2.45 per pint, this is not a place you could call your lime and soda local. Unless of course you were well off enough to live in one of the new Bankside developments. You do pay for location in London though and this is a nice one, especially on a night like this one was.

This was really solid. It was a nice environment, the drink was refreshing and it made for a pleasant subplot to the evening. Worth checking out if the mood is right.

Sources:
A London Inheritance piece on the pub: https://alondoninheritance.com/tag/founders-arms/

Pub history link: https://pubshistory.com/LondonPubs/SouthwarkChristchurch/FoundersArms.shtml

Londonist article: https://londonist.com/pubs/pubs/founders-arms
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