Sunday 3 May 2015

Pub 17, Day 15 – The Penny Black [The Return]

By Andy

Why, I hear you ask, would anyone ever return to The Penny Black?

Well readers, like many misfortunes in life, it was all the result of a cock-up.

Pubquest rules state that we must drink a different pint in each pub. On our previous visit to The Penny Black, we chose Ruddles Smooth. Tragically, by the time of our trip to The Shakey, we had successfully erased The Penny Black from our memory, and once again selected Ruddles Smooth.

Consequently, and despite much consternation from our guests Izzy and Hannah, we knew we had to make a repeat visit.

With The Shakey being a bit of a trek, and The Penny Black being in the city centre, we decided it offered the simplest solution.

The pub was originally built for the nearby Royal Mail workers,

As you may have by now realised, this blog can occasionally lag behind schedule. As such, when Rob wrote the original entry for The Penny Black, he was well aware that we would have to make a return journey in the near future. With that in mind, I feel he beat around the bush somewhat, and in the interest of his own safety, failed to offer our loyal readers the honesty you deserve.

Now, safe in the knowledge that we will never be visiting The Penny Black again, I will refute a few of his assertions.

1) “The staff were nice and friendly.”

I can only presume that a different member of staff was working that night.

After our previous mishap, we selected Strongbow Dark Fruit this time around – we agreed it was the drink we were least likely to come across again. Admittedly, this is a pint we would not often choose. Even so, the barman stared at us as if we had requested two Woo-Woos, unable to conceal a look of disappointment with the modern man.

Handily, Strongbow Dark Fruit tasted like vomit-flavoured Lemsip, ensuring we will never forget drinking it, and therefore never accidentally order it again.

2) “There was real ale available.”

A debatable point. As previously covered, the most unique pint available was (the mass-produced) Strongbow Dark Fruit. With the above statement, Rob is referring to our nemesis Ruddles Smooth. However, whereas Ruddles Best and Ruddles County are unequivocally real ales, Ruddles Smooth is a bastard-child – it carries the name of a reputable ale brewer, but fizzes from a keg.

3) “The Penny Black is by no means horrible.”

This sentence actually borders on praise. I hereby confirm that contrary to the above
statement, The Penny Black is horrible.

The Penny Black Pool Score: Andy 1-1 Rob
Pubquest Pool Score: Andy 35-25 Rob

Pub: The Penny Black (40 Pond Hill, S1 2BG)
Rating: 4.5/10
Pint: Strongbow Dark Fruit   

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