The Crown Hotel, Lime Street, Liverpool

Posted by Mike Chapple on February 29, 2008 11:01 PM

FIRST impressions are lasting impressions. Right? Right.

And the primary place the city burghers should want to get right for the first time visitor alighting from the train in this its Capital of Culture year is Lime Street.

Right?

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2008 beer festival

Posted by Mike Chapple on February 16, 2008 11:03 PM

IN PAST columns, the traditional image of the male strain of the real ale drinker has come under the spotlight.

He’s a Captain Birdseye type figure, with Space Hopper tum, beard, and ruddy cheeks who has a penchant for whipping out the squeeze box hidden down his dungarees and subsequently warbling a selection of English folk songs about the glory days of black puddings, canals and the utilitarian advantages to be found from living in a brown paper bag.

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The Heather Brow pub, Claughton, Birkenhead

Posted by me on February 9, 2008 11:03 PM

RECENTLY we found a great little local, the Heather Brow at Claughton in Birkenhead.

It was blessed with a God’s Waiting Room.

Far from being morbid, this is a dry, charming expression which takes an irreverent bow to the inevitable for a part of a pub where older men – and women – will meet their friends. Inevitably, as the Brow’s owner Tony Houlihan – a veteran himself – confirmed, the talk would sometimes turn to days gone by and drinking chums who had moved on, metaphorically speaking, to the room upstairs.

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The Village Inn pub, Aintree

Posted by Mike Chapple on February 3, 2008 11:23 PM

EIGHT months ago, The Valentine, in Aintree, looked dead in the water.

Targeted by arsonists the previous Christmas, it later lost its licence. Local residents – who had come to vilify the once-popular local – even celebrated as a court backed the decision to keep it closed.

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