St Helens

The weather forecast was very poor, so once again I abandoned a plan which required lots of walking.  Instead I headed to St Helens where there are plenty of required targets.

I started my survey at the Brasserie Chalon:

The name always conjures up a mental picture of a posh bistro restaurant sort of place, I wonder if it ever was like that? 

What we find now is a nicely done plain clean and tidy boozer, where I enjoyed my first Carling of the day.  Quite a lot of people in at lunchtime, and the rooms were filled with cheerful conversations.  One bloke, with two empty Amstel glasses in front of him, was asleep.  It's a bit early for that, I thought.  But why not - The place is warm, comfortable and friendly and he's not doing any harm to anyone.

Next, on to somewhere where I should get a pint of something good, the Sefton:

Or maybe not.  I chose Rev James.  I took a sip, er, that's not right.  I took a bigger swig:  Yeuch!  More suited to pouring on chips.  Now I hate taking beer back, and have often drunk dodgy pints rather than reject them, or even left them behind on the table and walked out, but this one was horrible so I stepped up and complained.  The cheerful barmaid quickly poured me a pint of London Pride which was very good albeit perhaps slightly short measure.  Even better, she immediately turned the clip round on the Rev James. 

So, the crisis over, I sat back and enjoyed my pint.  The pub was ticking over nicely with a scattered crowd of diners and drinkers.  On a Friday afternoon it really should be busier than this, though. 

The large open room decorated in traditional style was, of course, covered in euro flags, I expect many pubs will do well around the final on Sunday.  On that subject, I was somewhat surprised to find my local Wetherspoon branch extra busy on Wednesday evening, despite them only displaying sports on one telly.  All good for my shares, though! 

Next, along Westfield Street let's see what survives:  The Wheatsheaf is neglected and has a For Sale sign, Kingdom (Punch Tarmey's when I visited) is boarded up and also for sale.  On the other hand, Dreem has lost its D but is still going strong:

Nothing has changed in this plain down market corridor bar since my previous call, back in 2018.  The regulars all know each other and they just ignore the stranger fiddling with his tablet.

Carling was my choice here, only £2.60.   Good grief, this place has that rare thing, a clearly readable price list, and I've chosen an expensive beer!  Fosters, John Smith's and Strongbow are all cheaper.

The weather is so bad the central heating is on in here, and my chosen seat was in front of a pleasantly warm radiator.

Now, on to one of those wonderful things:  A new(ish) place I've never heard of, number 1,498 on my list of visited bars, Coco's:

The sign on the door says only over 35s are allowed in here, I'm not sure if that is a joke or are they serious?  Not a limitation I have to worry about, anyway.  I checked streetview to find out how new this place is and discovered it has been here for at least eight years, so I'm embarrassed to admit I must have walked past without noticing it on a number of occasions.  Oh well, better late than never.

Another small bar where everyone knows everyone else, and most (but not all) of them are older than I.  Once again, the pub ticker typing on his tablet is ignored.

The decor is very well done with black sparkle tiles in the floor and silvery walls decorated with Elvis pictures.  There's a small stage at one end of the room, so perhaps it's live music later; more likely karaoke.

Another Carling for me, £2.60 again. 

What a wonderful friendly boozer this is, everyone is cheerful and enjoying their chatter, although having said that a brief argument started while I was in the gents, I could hear some raised voices.  It was all over by the time I came out.

Just one more target in this end of town, the Market Tavern:

There was only one operational handpump in a mainly keg pub, but I risked a pint of Moorhouse's White Witch.  It was gorgeous, definitely pint of the day, remarkably fruity.

Although by no means packed the pub was much busier than all the previous ticks, and the background music was mostly drowned out by chatter and laughter. 

It's not often I notice a humorous "quotation" on the wall I've not seen before, but I do like "Trust me, you can dance" credited to Beer.  I have fallen for that one on occasion.

St Helens truly is a wonderful pub destination, even if you don't go looking for the specialist cask places.  All life is here, which I fear is the snob's way of saying it is all down market.  Can I put it better?  Real people in real pubs, is that closer to what I'm trying to say? 

Pub of the day: Market Tavern
Beer of the day: White Witch
Miles walked: 1.2
Maybe coming soon: Cantril Farm, Bebington, Prenton