The Robins and Natch

Today spent a few hours working with my brother in his building business finishing off a job, only a few hours of graft on the cement mixer and wheel barrow, not enough to blister my soft hands.

On the way home, having been tipped a tenner, we stopped at a working man’s pub (nice way to describe it), the Robins pub, near Ashton Gate football ground. Recommend not stepping into this establishment wearing any other football shirt than Bristol City. The pub is named due to proximity to the City ground and you guessed it, the football team’s nickname is the Robins. This place would have and probably still does see some serious football fans.

The decor is fairly basic, 2 rooms, 1 with a pool table, noted a plaque on the wall in memory of a former City fan,  the main clientele would be football fans on match day and on weekdays local tradesman stopping for pint on the way home.  We stopped off at lunch time, it was not too busy with probably a dozen other patrons.

It is not the most salubrious of establishments but served a reasonable variety of the standard tap beers including John Smith, Courage’s Best, Fosters , Carling, Guinness, Blackthorn and Thatchers.

Settled for a pint of Thatchers Golden, a light and smooth cider, not too fizzy ….  as it name suggests the beer is very golden in colour and I would suggest designed more for the mass market, than the Thatchers ciders of old.

This afternoon at the local off-licence purchased a 2 litre of Natch cider for £3.20, not historically one of my favourites but in the interest of variety decided to sample –  a very dry cider, a bit more bitter than I like, but still very drinkable and 5.2% proof.