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This Puppy Is Really Loving Life Right Now
Mar. 2nd, 2015 11:00 amThursday and Saturday turned out to be two rather drink-filled days albeit for different reasons. Since getting the Untappd app, I've started charting my drinking habits and suffice to say, having 325 distinct beers in a three month period is perhaps concerning. Granted this is between Wolfie and I and any we do have together we share, equating to about one third of a pint, but it's still a fair amount of alcohol, even taking the Christmas period and a holiday into account. Still, it is one of our primary hobbies - we do like sampling a range of different beers and ales - and we never go out to get drunk. Unfortunately, once we start, we struggle to stop and although that doesn't have many real consequences, it may be worth toning it down. It's probably not helping my weight, which is creeping up slightly as the weeks progress, but when it's your main aspect of socializing and a main interest too, it's hard to limit it.
On Thursday, we were at the iconic North Bar in Leeds, where they had a tap takeover from the excellent Beavertown Brewery. I wasn't sure whether to go as I had been suffering from a bad blocked nose earlier in the week which affected my taste, but it had largely gone by midweek. We had intended to swing by for an hour then go home but it was so busy at around 7:15pm we ventured elsewhere in the city before returning later on. The previous Saturday, we had noticed a new bar in an office section underneath where a karaoke place used to be called The Office, but this wasn't open on a Thursday night so instead we went to the White Cloth Art Gallery, who have a little bar to one side. They proclaim that We Love Scooners on the door so it was definitely the place for us. It's a small bar, offering only 20 different drinks but in this is quite a selection including craft and real ale. Most of them we had tried before but we did find a couple we hadn't, which were tasty indeed. There was an event going on in the art gallery so streams of people kept traipsing past our table, which was a little annoying, so we left after one drink and went to Friends of Ham.
FoH is becoming an institution in Leeds, particularly since it expanded, serving a huge range of beer and charcuterie style cheese and meat too. The menu is different too, not only labeling what's on each pump, but also the yep subsequent beers after that. When the first beer is gone, a stamp says so, meaning you move on to the second on the list. It's quite a clever idea and in keeping with the Bravertown theme, I went for a Bloody 'Ell 7.2% orange lager, which was the first five star rating I had ever given on Untappd. We were sat at the bar and the serving lady was tremendous or friendly, chatting with us for a good 10-15 minutes about a range of things. The bar was quite busy but it's certainly a place we need to visit more, while her recommendation for Meat and Liquor for food turned out to be exceptional.
We had been meaning to try Meat and Liquor ever since it opened in September but we never really had the chance. We had hoped to go after the furmeet earlier in the month but the fussy Middlesbrough vegetarian put paid to that. With us needing food and it not being particularly busy, now was a good time to try it and it was truly exceptional, pretty much what Five Guys should be. The price was similar but the burger I had was exquisite while the fries in gravy abs smothered with cheese was also fantastic. The food were served on a sharing tray, with Wolfie's stuff too, allowing us to share and I feel that this is probably the home of the best burger in the city. Our server, an Australian gentleman who had moved to Leeds from London, remembered us from the one and only other time we had visited the bar on September 6, when he just got some beer as we had just eaten in another place. He told me business was going well and that it was definitely picking up, while he introduced Wolfie to the times chili challenge, which I think has less appeal than his Solita experience back in January.
After this, we were ready for North Bar and we were delighted to discover that it had thinned out somewhat, enough to get a table at least yet still quite busy. They had 11 Beavertown beers on tap but as I had expected, we had a least tried around half of them so we ordered to others and sampled some great beer amidst a good ambience. Sadly, we only had an hour here but it was enough for us to get halves of every remaining beer we had yet to try before we needed to yomp for the bus after I mis-calculated the time I needed to get into town. Still, it was a very good evening and we did manage to catch the bus, so I'm glad we did it, even though it did mean drinking on a school night which is something I'm generally keen up avoid (and something at which in generally quite good).
Saturday was the York meet, Fioxy's last as organiser and probably the last one ever as I don't see a rush of people wanting to take over the baton. Despite the howls of protest regarding a no Fursuit policy, Fioxy opted to celebrate the last meet by visiting all of the previous venues in which the meet had taken prance over the last eight years. It was me nice idea but a pub crawl in a busy tourist city with 30 people proved to be somewhat difficult. They had already visited Lendal Cellars by the time we arrived and had ended up in The Cross Keys, a usual post-meet eating venue rather than a meet venue itself. Still, they had a beer garden big enough to accommodate us all and as it wasn't particularly cold, this is where we were to stay for the next three hours until we eye all thrown out because Jay was sick everywhere, both outside and all over the toilet. This was more fever based than alcohol apparently - and the large chunks of undigested onion would suggest this - but the pub tarred us all with the same brush and stopped any of our party buying drinks, even though we must have contributed significantly to their takings that afternoon. The range of beer here was surprisingly extensive, with a real ale theme with a couple if craft thrown in. The craft were particularly gorgeous and one of the staff admitted to me that they are hoping to boost their craft offering in future. It'll be interesting to see what they get in. Aside from this, the pub itself was rammed as it was the Six Nations but the outside area was perfectly sized for us and it was great chatting to people with whom I wouldn't normally get to chat. The bar was also pretty central so allowed people to go off elsewhere and come back as and when they pleased, which was useful for the non-drinkers amongst us. It felt very much like an old meet from around five years ago, a real comfortable blast from the past, with just the right number to make this vibe possible. If this was part of Fioxy's intention - resurrecting an older meet - then he succeeded even if the vast majority of people there were Chargin's friends.
After we were chucked out, around half of us went to Cloisters, a rather dull hotel bar just outside Monk Bar. We were the only people in here and so took up one raised section, meaning of was quite easy to continue conversations here. With just standard lagers being served, we didn't particularly want to stay long, but everyone was starting to split by 7pm and we went our separate ways shortly afterwards. While looking for food, we spotted a small bar we had yet to try called Vahe Bar, which again had a nice range of beer and was in a pop-up style place. We had a pleasureable drink here while overlooking Goodramgate before heading to Drake's for some excellent fish and chips served with some of the York Brewery's finest. These are amongst my favourite fish and chips in the country as the chips are always fresh and there isn't an excess of batter on the fish. The mushy peas too are sweet and tender. The place was quite dead but they admitted they had had a huge rush earlier in the day. The quiet was quite nice though as we ate some top quality food. By this point though my phone had died meaning I couldn't add beer to the Untappd app - we tried charging it in the restaurant using one of their leads but alas to no avail - so I had to remember the beers we had.
After satisfying ourselves with food we headed back to the station where we had forty minutes to kill before our next train. Sadly there were none direct to New Pudsey at this time so we had to get the bus out of Leeds, much to Wolfie's complaints, so we had a pleasant nightcap at the excellent York Taps before boarding the train, where I kept annoying Wolfie by opening my mouth repeatedly and saying 'this puppy is really loving life right now' based on a picture I have. It annoyed him but it was fun but then we are both more irritable after drinking. Still we got home without incident ready for our Sunday adventures, which I'll detail next.
On Thursday, we were at the iconic North Bar in Leeds, where they had a tap takeover from the excellent Beavertown Brewery. I wasn't sure whether to go as I had been suffering from a bad blocked nose earlier in the week which affected my taste, but it had largely gone by midweek. We had intended to swing by for an hour then go home but it was so busy at around 7:15pm we ventured elsewhere in the city before returning later on. The previous Saturday, we had noticed a new bar in an office section underneath where a karaoke place used to be called The Office, but this wasn't open on a Thursday night so instead we went to the White Cloth Art Gallery, who have a little bar to one side. They proclaim that We Love Scooners on the door so it was definitely the place for us. It's a small bar, offering only 20 different drinks but in this is quite a selection including craft and real ale. Most of them we had tried before but we did find a couple we hadn't, which were tasty indeed. There was an event going on in the art gallery so streams of people kept traipsing past our table, which was a little annoying, so we left after one drink and went to Friends of Ham.
FoH is becoming an institution in Leeds, particularly since it expanded, serving a huge range of beer and charcuterie style cheese and meat too. The menu is different too, not only labeling what's on each pump, but also the yep subsequent beers after that. When the first beer is gone, a stamp says so, meaning you move on to the second on the list. It's quite a clever idea and in keeping with the Bravertown theme, I went for a Bloody 'Ell 7.2% orange lager, which was the first five star rating I had ever given on Untappd. We were sat at the bar and the serving lady was tremendous or friendly, chatting with us for a good 10-15 minutes about a range of things. The bar was quite busy but it's certainly a place we need to visit more, while her recommendation for Meat and Liquor for food turned out to be exceptional.
We had been meaning to try Meat and Liquor ever since it opened in September but we never really had the chance. We had hoped to go after the furmeet earlier in the month but the fussy Middlesbrough vegetarian put paid to that. With us needing food and it not being particularly busy, now was a good time to try it and it was truly exceptional, pretty much what Five Guys should be. The price was similar but the burger I had was exquisite while the fries in gravy abs smothered with cheese was also fantastic. The food were served on a sharing tray, with Wolfie's stuff too, allowing us to share and I feel that this is probably the home of the best burger in the city. Our server, an Australian gentleman who had moved to Leeds from London, remembered us from the one and only other time we had visited the bar on September 6, when he just got some beer as we had just eaten in another place. He told me business was going well and that it was definitely picking up, while he introduced Wolfie to the times chili challenge, which I think has less appeal than his Solita experience back in January.
After this, we were ready for North Bar and we were delighted to discover that it had thinned out somewhat, enough to get a table at least yet still quite busy. They had 11 Beavertown beers on tap but as I had expected, we had a least tried around half of them so we ordered to others and sampled some great beer amidst a good ambience. Sadly, we only had an hour here but it was enough for us to get halves of every remaining beer we had yet to try before we needed to yomp for the bus after I mis-calculated the time I needed to get into town. Still, it was a very good evening and we did manage to catch the bus, so I'm glad we did it, even though it did mean drinking on a school night which is something I'm generally keen up avoid (and something at which in generally quite good).
Saturday was the York meet, Fioxy's last as organiser and probably the last one ever as I don't see a rush of people wanting to take over the baton. Despite the howls of protest regarding a no Fursuit policy, Fioxy opted to celebrate the last meet by visiting all of the previous venues in which the meet had taken prance over the last eight years. It was me nice idea but a pub crawl in a busy tourist city with 30 people proved to be somewhat difficult. They had already visited Lendal Cellars by the time we arrived and had ended up in The Cross Keys, a usual post-meet eating venue rather than a meet venue itself. Still, they had a beer garden big enough to accommodate us all and as it wasn't particularly cold, this is where we were to stay for the next three hours until we eye all thrown out because Jay was sick everywhere, both outside and all over the toilet. This was more fever based than alcohol apparently - and the large chunks of undigested onion would suggest this - but the pub tarred us all with the same brush and stopped any of our party buying drinks, even though we must have contributed significantly to their takings that afternoon. The range of beer here was surprisingly extensive, with a real ale theme with a couple if craft thrown in. The craft were particularly gorgeous and one of the staff admitted to me that they are hoping to boost their craft offering in future. It'll be interesting to see what they get in. Aside from this, the pub itself was rammed as it was the Six Nations but the outside area was perfectly sized for us and it was great chatting to people with whom I wouldn't normally get to chat. The bar was also pretty central so allowed people to go off elsewhere and come back as and when they pleased, which was useful for the non-drinkers amongst us. It felt very much like an old meet from around five years ago, a real comfortable blast from the past, with just the right number to make this vibe possible. If this was part of Fioxy's intention - resurrecting an older meet - then he succeeded even if the vast majority of people there were Chargin's friends.
After we were chucked out, around half of us went to Cloisters, a rather dull hotel bar just outside Monk Bar. We were the only people in here and so took up one raised section, meaning of was quite easy to continue conversations here. With just standard lagers being served, we didn't particularly want to stay long, but everyone was starting to split by 7pm and we went our separate ways shortly afterwards. While looking for food, we spotted a small bar we had yet to try called Vahe Bar, which again had a nice range of beer and was in a pop-up style place. We had a pleasureable drink here while overlooking Goodramgate before heading to Drake's for some excellent fish and chips served with some of the York Brewery's finest. These are amongst my favourite fish and chips in the country as the chips are always fresh and there isn't an excess of batter on the fish. The mushy peas too are sweet and tender. The place was quite dead but they admitted they had had a huge rush earlier in the day. The quiet was quite nice though as we ate some top quality food. By this point though my phone had died meaning I couldn't add beer to the Untappd app - we tried charging it in the restaurant using one of their leads but alas to no avail - so I had to remember the beers we had.
After satisfying ourselves with food we headed back to the station where we had forty minutes to kill before our next train. Sadly there were none direct to New Pudsey at this time so we had to get the bus out of Leeds, much to Wolfie's complaints, so we had a pleasant nightcap at the excellent York Taps before boarding the train, where I kept annoying Wolfie by opening my mouth repeatedly and saying 'this puppy is really loving life right now' based on a picture I have. It annoyed him but it was fun but then we are both more irritable after drinking. Still we got home without incident ready for our Sunday adventures, which I'll detail next.
