Rochdale Pubs

Why Rochdale? Well, on my virtual travels during lockdown (remember when we weren’t allowed to go to pubs or football?), Rochdale came out top as my best virtual awayday. Why? Well you can read all about it here.

Anyway my fellow pub blogger friend Martin, having completed all the pubs in the Good Beer Guide, is now working through all the pubs in Matt Curtis’s excellent Manchester’s Best Beer Pubs & Bars. This book includes pubs in Rochdale. I was thirsty so I suggested a cheeky midweek mission to Rochdale. Martin and his lovely wife Christine don’t need much encouragement to meet up for beers and thus a rendezvous was arranged.

I boarded the train at Manchester Victoria and landed in Rochdale less than 20 minutes later. Who knew it was so easy to get to Rochdale? Not me, having not been for yonks. Martin and Christine met me at the station and I reverted to ‘follow mode’ for the duration of the evening. To the pub!

Bombay Brew

I’ll confess this was the main reason I wanted to visit Rochdale. A pub that specialises in Indian food and beer. What’s not to love about that?

We were greeted in the foyer (it had more of a restauranty vibe than a pub and Google actually lists it as an Indian Restaurant, although it is in the Good Beer Guide) and shown through to a table in the back room. We were the only customers but we had arrived pretty much bang on the 5pm opening time so weren’t unduly concerned by this.

I studied the drinks menu but needed visibility of options so headed back through to the bar to consult the pump clip (singular) and fridge. I had a taster of the cask (Vocation Bombay Brew) but wasn’t excited by it so fridge it was (oops).

This was a risk. I’m never sure if I’m going to like a sour and it is of course not possible to have a taster of a can. But it was a safe choice at 4.5%. And I did enjoy it.

Oh the food?

The menu was interesting with so much that I wanted to try. I went for the Mango Chicken Pow (fab) followed by the Staff Curry (surprisingly less spicy than I’d anticipated). Soz no pics because I wasn’t in full on blogging mode on this particular night out but thankfully Martin was so here’s the link to his blog, complete with some great photos of Bombay Brew.

Duly stuffed (see Preston for why I need to eat tons before embarking on a crawl), it was now time to focus on the drinking.

Our Gracie’s

This is a new 60s themed micropub and we liked it very much. Especially this beer, which was exquisite.

The pub is named after Gracie Fields, who was born in Rochdale. I knew the name but wasn’t aware of any examples of her work so I’ve just looked her up. This song caught my eye.

An interesting angle that, if you’re not wearing any clothes, you don’t really need an umbrella. I’m not a bit one for using brollies as it is unless it’s raining THAT hard that the water runs into my eyes and my contact lenses start swimming about in my eyes, impairing my vision. I usually just stick a hat on but I suppose that’s not an option for a nudist. Therefore he probably would find an umbrella useful.

The layout of the seating was a bit weird but we successfully secured a cosy corner looking out onto the square and enjoyed the 60s music that was just at that perfect level where you can hear it well enough but it doesn’t drown out your conversation.

There was a cute little lending library at the rear of the pub where you could pick up a book to read on your way to the toilet.

Here’s Martin’s blog with added detail.

Pint Pot

The walk down the back streets to get here was FABULOUS. What a little treasure Rochdale is! So quirky and full of culture.

This second micro of the (micro) crawl was a treasure too. For a start, they had Beartown Creme Bearlee on – and who can resist that? Well Martin, apparently, but not me (or Christine).

I loved the wall art in here – as documented and photographed in Martin’s blog here – and was also pleased to find a place to rest my feet despite having to climb up to my seat.

I was slightly disturbed at the sight of a man erecting speakers across the room (this was a small, one-roomed micro). Was it pub quiz night? A poster on the wall confirmed this – and I was pleased to see it was due to start after we’d left. Not that I have anything against pub quizzes. Indeed I used to frequent one at the Fitters Arms (RIP) in Walsall with (another) fellow blogger and friend (and former housemate) Evo. It was just that tonight was about catching up with Martin and Christine in a limited timeframe and noise would have just got in the way of this. I might (won’t) come back for the quiz another time.

Baum

Time for a different type of pub now. This place is a STUNNING traditional boozer that reminded me very much of Martin’s local The Blind Monkey, which you can read about in my Sheffield blog here.

There were lots of beers on (again, soz no pics but blog mode off). However my eye was caught by something exciting looking in the fridge (it’s Fridge O’Clock by now, right?).

Twas a bit sweet but I enjoyed it all the same.

The food in here smelled AMAZING and I’d definitely be looking to eat here on my next visit.

Anyway here’s Martin’s blog for more detail. Big up for Martin btw. Do visit his blog and tell him what a legend he is. He’s completed the Good Beer Guide, you know.

En route to the next pub, we passed the stunning Rochdale Town Hall (blogged by Martin here). I was impressed enough from the outside but Christine raved about the inside for a good ten minutes. We paused to take more photographs because we couldn’t NOT (even me, who’s not blogging tonight).

Flying Horse

The final stop of the night was another stunner (see Martin’s blog for the full effect).

I’ll confess I felt slightly unsettled in here. I felt as though the pub didn’t quite know whether it wanted to be traditional or modern. There was an odd shambles of features. But it was a very popular place – buzzing on this Wednesday night – and Martin told me some impressive fact about it (some national CAMRA award or something?). So it obviously works.

Sadly the beer I wanted wasn’t on so I had this instead.

And that was that, dear reader. My companions escorted me back to the station and I navigated my way home successfully, making sure to stick my tunes on so I didn’t fall asleep on the way home.

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Next Up: Birmingham Pubs.