St Andrew's excels with both beer and food, and rekindles a few memories!

It wasn't some mad pub crawl that I embarked upon when I visited Norwich last Wednesday, instead it was a much more leisurely tour around a number of the city’s finest hostelries. I achieved this by allowing myself-sufficient time in the city, arriving mid-morning and delaying my departure until the 19:00 train. I did this in order to not make the mistake of previous visits, where things were a lot more rushed.

I was also unsure how long it would take me to get to the Greenacres Woodland Burials Centre on the outskirts of Norwich, where I wanted to pay respects to my parents at their final resting place. As things turned out I had plenty of time, but it was nice not to be rushed and it was also good to be able to explore Norwich at my leisure. In the end, I only visited three pubs, and the first one of those was rather a fleeting visit.

What I intend doing here is to describe the two pubs that were the main event, so to speak, so without further ado, we kick off with St Andrew’s Brew House. Situated just opposite the entrance to the combined St Andrews & Blackfriars Halls, this popular and thriving brewpub occupies a prominent corner position. The main bar area faces the busy St Andrew’s Street, whilst the restaurant
section looks out across the pedestrianised area in front of the two halls. Both sections of the establishment have windows of clear glass, enabling potential customers to see what is going on inside, and how busy the place is.

St Andrew’s Brew House has been in business since 2015, which was a couple of years before I called in for the first time, one evening, with young master Matthew. We were on one of our regular trips to Norfolk, in order to visit my father. We’d booked into a motel, somewhere just off the Norwich Ring Road, and had caught a bus into the city centre, in search of both food and drink. We’d actually noticed this brewpub on a previous visit, but as I was driving on that occasion, it seemed rather pointless to call in.

Next time, things were different, and we entered with the intention of enjoying some of the house-brewed beers, and also something to eat.  We discovered four hand-pumped, house-brewed beers on offer, along with a couple of keg beers. The brewing kit was clearly visible behind a glass screen, to the far left of the bar.  I wrote at the time, how impressed I was with the knowledge and enthusiasm of the staff and said that I would definitely be making a return visit.

Six years later, that return visit finally materialised, and I found myself, once more inside the bright and airy interior of the pub and gazing at that same bank of hand-pumps, except there were now six of them, rather than four. Food, as well as drink, was foremost in my mind, so I was relieved to learn there was a further half-hour before the kitchen closed for the afternoon. I ordered a fish finger sandwich for myself, complete with a portion of fries. I also tried a couple of the house-brewed beers, namely Festival House - Pale Ale and Tombland Porter. Both beers were very good.

My sandwich was virtually a meal in itself but was just the right size to see me through until the end of the day. The only thing that had changed since my visit six years ago, was the lack of customers, but on a cold and slightly damp, midweek lunchtime, Norwich itself wasn’t exactly bustling either. I’d found the same situation in the pub I’d called in at on my way to St Andrews. This was an Adnam’s tied house called the Rumsey Wells, on a prominent corner location, a short distance along St Andrews Street. I’d noticed the pub on a previous visit, and as it was an Adnam’s house I popped in on the off chance that there might be some Old Ale on tap.

Unfortunately, this was not the case, and disappointingly Southwold Bitter was not on sale either. The ubiquitous Broadside was available, but I have never been a huge fan of this beer, which Adnam’s introduced a replacement for their excellent Extra. Incidentally, the brewery have made Extra, a beer that was crowned Champion Beer of Britain in 1993, available in Wetherspoons outlets, as part of the chain's current cask ale festival. The saving grace, as far as the Rumsey Wells was concerned, was the presence of cask Mosaic Pale Ale, the first time I have seen this beer in cask form. Apart from myself, there was just a group of three, quite vociferous individuals, sitting at the far end of the main bar, so with the Rumsey Wells lacking people, atmosphere and Adnam’s Old, I drank up and left.

Departing St Andrew’s Brew House, and heading down towards the river, I walked past the entrance to St Andrews & Blackfriars Halls, the location of the 2013 CAMRA AGM. After sitting through a morning's worth of turgid, boring, and ultimately pointless conference debate, I clearly remember walking out of the building with the promise never to attend another such CAMRA event. Outside, and away from the gloom of the conference hall, the sun was shining, spring was in the air, and I set off to explore and enjoy a few of Norwich’s many fine pubs.

I should have known better, because that morning, whilst walking up to the conference hall from my bed and breakfast place close to Norwich station, I bumped into Gill and Gerry Keay, two long standing CAMRA stalwarts from Canterbury branch. I naturally assumed they were going to the AGM, but when I mentioned the meeting, they just laughed, and said whilst they normally attended these weekend get-togethers of the CAMRA faithful, they always gave the conference motions and associated debates a wide berth, preferring instead to use the time, by exploring a few of the local pubs and enjoying some of the ales served therein. As I sat there, that morning, listening to impassioned speeches over seemingly trivial issues, I was really wishing I’d accepted the couple’s invitation to join them!

My walk down past those halls, lead me towards the next pub on my itinerary, namely the classic King’s Head, in Magdalen Street on the other side of the river. You can read all about my visit, which was another case of déjà vu, in the next post.