Slow down, there's time for a beer and the sights
By Phil Mellows
If I’d have stopped to think about it, I’d never have got it done. Since last summer, when Kate and I were commissioned by publisher Bloomsbury to write a book, I’ve visited around 600 pubs, bars and taprooms in the course of my research (not counting the ones I went into just for a pint).
I’m not claiming any records, but that’s a lot. Around 100 a month. Three or four a day. If I’d made that calculation at the beginning I would have felt daunted. But I made no calculations. I just dived in, picking a convenient destination among the 30 we’d lined up, pre-researching potential candidates for the guide and jumping on a train or in the car.
It was only when I reached Bristol, my final destination, and someone asked me how many places I’d been to that I thought about it. And wondered how it happened.
People have understandably been envious of such a task and, I’ll grant you, there are worse jobs. But it’s not like regular pub-going. You’ve only time for a half, or a third if they do thirds, and then you’re off to the next. I’ve been to so many amazing places that I had to leave too quickly.
Take Bristol. The Kings Head, a historic pub now run by Good Chemistry Brewing with its unique Tramcar Bar. Or Birmingham, the fabulous Indian Brewery taproom at Snow Hill. Or Broadstairs, the superior micropub formerly known as The 39 Steps, now Sonder, a word that means a sudden understanding that other people are just as complicated as you are. And that’s just the Bs.
That hurts. Yet there was always the next pub, the next taproom to ease the pain. Someone asked me whether I became jaded from the surfeit. But right to the last I was excited about the next destination where I knew I would reacquaint myself with old favourites or, even better, make a wonderful new discovery. Somehow, beer always delivers.
Which is one of the messages of our book. Another is – don’t do what I did!
A key concept underlying our approach to British Beer Breaks is Slow Travel. Increasingly, tourism is less about ticking off a destination than in spending quality time there, browsing the streets, getting to know a place, meeting the locals and discovering the less obvious attractions.
Now, I’ve nothing against tickers, those people whose mission is to drink every beer and visit every pub in the Good Beer Guide (or similar). I once had the honour of spending an afternoon with the late, legendary Mick ‘The Tick’ Baker. But that’s not what we’re about.
So how about slow drinking. Not only tasting your beer on the way down but stopping to look around, exploring what’s there between the pubs and, especially, not trying to do it all. Like I did.
And that suits beer, I think. More than other drinks a beer signals that it’s time to relax, forget about deadlines, make casual conversation. It’s the perfect accompaniment to Slow Travel.
Photo: A slow pint outside the Crown & Anchor at Dell Quay, West Sussex