Before venturing onto Clarendon Street, which is the main drag of South Melbourne, BotF was wandering through the back streets in search of the best named pub we’ve heard of for a while – the Maori Chief Hotel. We found it, but unfortunately it was closed on a Sunday – as we haven’t had a beer in it, it cannot be described on this site.
Further down Moray Street is an institution – Bell’s Hotel and Brewery – which was open. Sunday arvos are really quiet in this neck of the woods – or the pub isn’t that popular – as there was lucky to be 10 punters in the pub. They were literally punters as that was the only part of the pub with any one in it. The quietness may explain why there was a large for sale sign out the front of the pub. The pub is being sold freehold.
Not sure how many brews they have going at Bells, but of the two taps with Bells on it, only one was operating and that was “Billy Stout”. Being Melbourne – I had a pot – and as you can see from the photo – it was a dense black colour. Good solid stout, with good fizz and plenty of flavour. Great to have a stout off the tap as well.
I’ll give Bells another go, particularly if I can have a beer at the Maori Chief as well on the way.
PS: sorry about the 6 posts yesterday – not sure what happened. I’m at the stage where I’m going to throw the iPhone out the window. It is a great device, but Apple abandon early models too quickly. My device operates on a 5 second delay – apparently because the new software is great for iPhone 4, but not 3. Not sure if that caused the gremlin I had yesterday – but it is safer to publish from the computer.
back of the ferry 