In a Pear Tree and Vegan Board Games Night in Bristol

It’s the variety that appeals.  And not just the variety of pear.  One day the Good Beer Guide sends you to a rough old estate pub, the next to something akin to the idyllic notion of an English country inn.  You can guess which of these is closer to the Pear Tree, Whitley, in Wiltshire.   It is probably the only Guide pub to ever include the words “trimmed lawn and fragrant plants” in the description.  This may, of course, be some sort of code.

Whilst much of it is given over to diners, there is a proper bar area where the first fire of the year had been set (a mere two weeks after the first sighting of Christmas decorations).   Three handpumps offered the reliable Bath Gem (4.1%); Conscript (4.2%), a rather unchallenging golden ale from local brewers Twisted; and Rusty Lane (4.4%), a toffeeish red ale from another Wiltshire brewery, Kennet & Avon Brewery.

After two more football matches in the Western League at Odd Down and Hengrove, there was still time to visit a couple more Bristol pubs.  The Greenbank in Easton is Bristol Life GastroPub of the Year.  Don’t let that put you off as it had a reasonably pubby feel on a saturday night.  Our group sampled three decent local beers- Butcombe Original (4%), Blindman Buff (3.6%) and Box Broad Gauge (4.8%).

This pub- closed until 2014 – has regenerated itself as a community asset.  If your tastes run to the heady combination of life drawing and vegan board games then this is the place for you.

There have been good reports about Snuffy Jack’s Ale House, a new micropub in the Fishponds area of the city, not least from Boak and Bailey.  The pub’s own facebook page states the closing time as 23.00. We arrived at 22.35 and a chalk board saying bar closes at 22.45 was put on the bar.  We bought two halves of Hal’s Ales New Inn Chestnut (4.6%), two halves of Yeovil Stout Hearted (4.3%) and a half of Dawkins Bristol Best (4%), all priced at £3.50p a pint.

There was a sign saying CAMRA discount but this was declined as we didn’t order pints.  Usually micropub owners are more than happy to talk about their venture but on this occasion they clearly just wanted everyone in the pub to leave so they could close, so our stay was very brief. Must have been a hard day.

Last stop of the night was the Van Dyck Forum, a nearby Wetherspoons that has never graced the Guide and, after a sub standard beer, it is easy to see why.   This is a shame as service was good and the setting attractive, in a former cinema dating from 1926.

The reason for going in was so that Eddie, GBG ticker and the statutory Yorkshireman in our group, could go to his 700th Wetherspoons.  Good work, but still some way to go to catch Mr Spoons himself, completist Dave G, whose successful attempts to do the airside ones without flying – are worthy of a blog of its own.

Pictured, from left, are:  Anonymous man who happened to be walking past;  Eddie; Jim (statutory Lancastrian and GBG ticker); Spoons doorman; Dr John.