books

We recently had the opportunity to take a child-free long weekend, and our destination criteria were simple: a short, direct flight from Dublin, reasonably affordable hotels and access to excellent bookshops; good beer was a bonus. Having previously missed the chance to visit Persephone Books for their anniversary festival earlier in the year, Bath was bubbling up to the top of our list, but we had no real desire to stay there (or, more to the point, pay to stay there) at the height of tourist season.

Hotel specials showed good value in Bristol, and given the short train ride to Bath – plus affordable flights from Dublin – that became our chosen destination. We got some excellent beer advice from Ray and Jess of Boak and Bailey fame – more on that later – and had a long list of Bath bookshops pre-selected, so off we went. Our early-morning flight was only very slightly delayed, so we had most of the day to wander around Bristol. I had last visited in 2001 to see The Divine Comedy (Regeneration tour, if you’re keeping track), but saw little on that trip; indeed, I last ‘saw’ the usual sights of (pre-Banksy) Bristol in the early 1990s…which I hazily recall as seeing the Clifton Suspension Bridge after a day trip to Wookey Hole Caves, but not much else stuck in the mind.

Having done most of the touristy things in Bath on relatively recent trips, we planned to make that part of the trip purely a book-shopping affair – but with a beery side quest we’ll return to shortly. And so, back to that first day in Bristol – we found the bus from the airport quite handy, dropped off our bags and began hitting the shops – much tea was required. We managed a few Bristol bookshops, got the lay of the land and stopped in to Left Handed Giant for lunch; I was thrilled to get my whenever-in-England cask dark mild there. I was also pleased about the prominence of their run club in the brewpub decor – I do miss having an active brewery-powered run club. After a quick stops at Little Martha Brewing and The King’s Head (and a rest), we met up with Jess and Ray in The Swan with Two Necks; it’s always a delight to meet someone from Former Beer Twitter IRL, especially after so many years of following their work. We had a lovely evening, but still got back to the hotel at a reasonable time – this was a child-free trip, after all, so actually getting enough sleep was achievable.

We (OK, I) began Day 2 with a bit of Parkrun tourism, getting a letter ‘E’ with Eastville. Once tidied up, we were off to Bath, and, possibly for the first time since Covid, I had a UK train journey that was reasonably priced and ran on time. True, it was crowded, but given that it was a summer weekend, this was not unexpected. We made one exception to the ‘avoiding touristy things’ remit by getting more tea at The Bath Bun, enjoying the sun on Abbey Green. Then, finally, it was all about books (well, and running shops). We started at Topping & Co, which was beautifully laid-out. Persephone Books was something of a pilgrimage spot (feel free to reference Dorothy Richardson if you like) – it used to be a regular place I would visit in London (very handy for The Lamb on Lamb’s Conduit Street), but had not had a chance prior to this to visit their new home in Bath. It did not disappoint. Mr B’s Emporium was also wonderful.

And then, the side quest!

We were thrilled to have Dr James Wright on the Beer Ladies Podcast this season to talk about his recent book, Historic Building Mythbusting, and in the course of chatting about pubs with spurious claims to antiquity, he mentioned The George Inn in Norton St Philip as one with a much better-documented case. James also pointed out that it was a short journey from Bath, and, indeed, the bus journey was easily achieved. We had a bit of time to explore The George, and also took in its sister pub, the Fleur de Lys, just across the street, before heading back to The George for dinner. I’ve long had a soft spot for Butcombe pubs, and find their cask bitter rather wonderful, so while there may not be anything ‘unusual,’ everything we did have was excellent, and the atmosphere was fantastic. It also turned out to be much easier and faster to get back to Bristol than expected(!), so we had time to stop in at Lost and Grounded, and enjoyed both their pleasant lagers and, given the heat, a radler. Going from a medieval inn to a modern taproom was quite a contrast, but it was a fun way to end the evening.

We then had a full day of ‘doing’ Bristol (after a training run to the Clifton Suspension Bridge – I am not used to running up hills any more) – we went to the impressive M Shed, where Bristol’s ancient and recent history, warts and all, was very well-presented and thoroughly contextualized. Rather than ignoring or glossing over things, there was a real clarity to the exhibits and a willingness to engage with the more difficult aspects of the city’s history, providing a much fuller picture. There was also a small STEAM TRAIN we got to take from M Shed to the SS Great Britain. I am a weirdo who has long had a fascination with Isamabard Kingdom Brunel’s work on the trouble-laden SS Great Eastern – I blame all the ‘haunted Britain’ books I had as a child – and so getting to see the SS Great Britain and the attached museum with a GIANT BRUNEL was, frankly, pretty great. We had some lovely cheese and a mini pub crawl – first, to Small Bar, a delightful and welcoming craft beer pub that I wish we’d had more time to visit, and then to Wiper & True, so we ticked off another brewery taproom.

The Bristol tourism continued the following day, with visits to both the Red Lodge and Georgian House Museums – and well-fuelled by Bird & Blend Tea. We saw a few Banksy pieces on our wanders, naturally, and visited what might have been my favourite pub: The Lime Kiln. On paper, there’s nothing that screams ‘outstanding pub’ – it’s a relatively unremarkable, early-20th century exterior, but inside, it’s cask-ale nerd heaven. The mural on the main wall features the pub cat, there was an excellent range of well-kept local beers and, at least on our visit, some of the most Relevant-to-my-Interests esoteric-edged prog rock playing quietly in the background. I LOVED EVERYTHING ABOUT IT.

Finally, before heading home, we hit one of the more tourist-friendly pubs in The Llandoger Trow, where, to my surprise, they had Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous on tap – a beautiful beer in a well-preserved setting, and a perfect way to end a short break.

In short (not that this has been short), a successful short break!

After a thirty-year absence, I made it back to Sheffield. My last visit was to interview for the University of Sheffield’s then-top-ranked PhD program(me) in archaeology, and although they offered me a tempting research opportunity, I opted for the bright lights of London and a master’s degree instead…and, alas the powers that be decided that Sheffield no longer needed an archaeology department (even though my degrees in archaeology and library science are *the core reasons* I am successful in a STEM career – because that’s the only important thing, obviously – but I digress).

The purpose of this trip was to attend Indie Beer Feast, where my friend and fellow Beer Ladies Podcast host Christina was pre-launching her book, The Devil’s in the Draught Lines, and to have a bit of a wander around Sheffield in general. While I cannot say I recognized anything from that previous trip, I did meet something of an old friend in a visit to The Brewery of St Mars of the Desert, which was an utter delight. As a long-ago fan of the brewery’s previous US incarnation, Pretty Things Beer & Ale Project, I absolutely adored their Jack D’Or and Saint Botolph’s Town, and would purchase them whenever they surfaced around Philadelphia, which was, to be fair, not infrequent. I especially loved their collaboration beer, KK, a collaboration with Ron Pattinson – one reviewed long before we ever met in person, in 2010 – and so it was a real thrill to see how the Yorkshire edition of things was faring. Things would appear to be in fantastic shape, as the brewery, tucked away on an industrial estate, was hopping early on a Friday afternoon, though it was their first day back open for the season. I had a glorious D’Or Mouse – a descendent of Jack D’Or – and Laska Pils, a thing of Czech-inspired beauty. It was also fantastic to see such a diverse crowd; all ages, backgrounds and genders seemed to be represented, and there was even an adorable dog.

But I had to be responsible and only have some small pours, as there was a beer festival to manage later, and a highlight there, for both evenings, was finally meeting so many people I’d only ever known online (or by their books); everyone was truly lovely (special shoutout to Jules and the Hop Hideout crew!). I snuck in a Parkrun as well, and though Endcliffe is a lot more like a trail run than my usual Parkrun stomping grounds in Dublin, it was great to see a different part of Sheffield, and to explore the area a bit. I also got a few sneaky cask bitter halves; one of the Kelham Island pubs I stopped in must have had more beer engines than we have in action in the entire Republic of Ireland (still, to be fair, in single digits).

Back at the festival, there were quite a few new-to-me or only-vaguely-known-to-me breweries, and while Torrside may not be a ‘discovery’ to people in the UK, I’d only had a single bottle before, and Abbeydale was a revelation. We get cans from Track nowadays too, but trying them much nearer the source was a treat.

Mostly, though, it was wonderful to see the response to Christina’s book – if you can make one of the upcoming launch events, go for it!

Well, we did it - after over a year and a half of living in Seattle, we finally made it to Portland.  I admit I had lowered my expectations somewhat - could the beer really be that good? As an old, jaded beer nerd (not to mention one who has been thoroughly spoiled by having lived within walking distance of Tired Hands), I'm used to finding things that I've heard mentioned in either hushed reverence or wild enthusiasm to actually fit somewhere between 'it's not bad' and 'did we really need another 12% barrel aged sour?'  Or worse – 'does it have a high BeerAdvocate and/or Untappd rating simply because it's so alcoholic/hoppy/sour/hard to find as to be nearly undrinkable?' And the much-maligned Portlandia-is-real hipster food scene – surely it would be quite similar: lots of dishes that were perfectly nice, but probably little worth braving Amtrak for (or - spoiler alert - your replacement bus that is required when Amtrak is sidelined by a landslide). After all, Portland is much smaller than Seattle, and I've found Seattle's food and beer to be pleasant, though not nearly as good as what we had in Philly, and certainly nothing like our old Brooklyn stomping grounds, though that's always an unfair comparison.

I am quite happy to report that I was wrong: it really is that good, and you can get tasting flights of absolutely everything: beer, spirits, ice cream, tea - you name it - and we did. Portland breweries, bars and restaurants also seemed to be much more comfortable with well-behaved children than their Seattle counterparts; we only encountered one place that wouldn't let them in, and they were incredibly apologetic and said they are working on getting their license revised. Most of the places we visited, and I'll highlight a few standouts in a moment, welcomed them with toys and great real food in smaller portions (though if you are my tween, he really only wants a place to plug in his phone so he can stream 1990s television and ignore us while we eat, though he does appreciate the food). Here are a few places we will definitely want to try again the next time we visit:

Ex Novo Brewing
Something billing itself as 'the nation's first nonprofit brewery' sounds like a Portland cliché, right? But absolutely everything about it - the welcome, the food, the beer, the fact that they donate their net profits to the local community and beyond - was fabulous. It was outstanding across the board: the kids had milkshakes of a quality I've not had in years (so good it stopped a travel-induced tantrum), I had possibly the best taco I've ever eaten, and we got bacon for the table. The beers were uniformly fantastic, from Cactus Wins the Lottery, a Berliner Weisse made with prickly pear cactus, to Where the Mild Things Are, a great - you guessed it - mild. I loved this place so much I started looking at local real estate prices.

Great Notion Brewing
This was on my 'try if in the neighborhood' list, rather than a must-do, but it was so good I had the 'what are the local house prices' reaction again. I admit I was a bit skeptical after my first glance at the menu; quite a few sour beers, and I've had so many mediocre sour beers of late – some clearly accidental, some just not nearly as good as their makers suggested.  But thoughts of bad beer were banished quickly – the Key Lime Pie and Blueberry Muffin beers were both wonderful; tart and refreshing, nice fruit character, but never cloying or perfume-y as is so often the case. Juice, Jr. was a fabulous IPA and as with Ex Novo (with whom they also collaborated on Best Budz - not a hipster pot beer, as you might fear, but a successful New England-style IPA, as we are calling them now), the food and service were both great. There was a welcome toy box and even the children's menu was made with top-quality ingredients; I would be tempted to order off that menu for myself.

Deschutes Brewery
Deschutes has always reminded me of Victory, our previous local stalwart when we lived in Pennsylvania - they've been around much longer than most of the smaller (and often weirder, in both good and bad ways) breweries, and to some they sit in that awkward 'uncool' space between the upstarts and the mega-brewers, but both have continued to thrive by offering a consistently high-quality product line, as well as careful expansion and innovation. Their Portland brewpub offered a good range of interesting food and tasting flights that backed up their reputation. Everything was lovely, but the Altbierior Motive stood out as a new-to-me offering.

Not Beer
I'm not generally a huge ice cream fan, but it would have been churlish to go to Portland and not at least try Salt & Straw, even though it seems their frozen empire is slowing moving up and down this coast, and it was well worth the trip. We actually skipped the tasting flight simply because the line was long and this time the tween, rather than the toddler, was fussy, but we did swap around a few times to good effect. We returned to tasting flights when visiting the fine local distilleries, but my favorite non-beer sampling session came at Steven Smith Teamaker. Both of their locations are in nicely-restored buildings, and we very much enjoyed the beautifully-presented custom tasting flights, each complete with a card detailing the tea's origin and properties.  We went home with a lot of tea.

Putting aside a few minor quibbles - one much-talked-of brewery that had excellent food but only 'meh' beers, a ghost/history tour of highly questionable historicity (not to mention the poorly-constructed ghost stories - there are formulas for this, people!) - Portland also impressed with its largely-thoughtful historic reuse. For a relatively young city by global standards, there is a large collection of older buildings and walkable neighborhoods that sit comfortably next to their new additions, providing a lot more character and visual interest than you get in much of Seattle. And, of course, there was Powell's Books - that certainly lived up to and exceeded expectations. My major disappointment in visiting Vancouver was the absence of a great independent bookstore (though, to be fair, the ghost tour was pretty good - yes, I judge cities by their bookstores and ghost tours), so Powell's, with their detailed categorization and (actual) curation, makes Portland a much more attractive destination for us bookish types; the transit and odd specialty shoe stores were also very much to my specifically-weird liking.

In short, we can't wait to go back - if someone could send a beer and taco truck from Portland to Seattle in the meantime, I'd be most grateful.