Borough Pub Crawl

With the girls away for a weekend in Champagne, what better way for the boys to celebrate than go on a pub crawl - especially with the Master of pub crawls, Tom, leaving in a week. After a late Friday night playing poker and an early morning getting up to watch the League final, the boys congregated at the Borough Markets on the Saturday to take in a few of the fine pubs the area has to offer.

First stop was The Market Porter, and institution and seemingly always busy with a huge selection of cask ales - typically about 15 or so. First pint up for me, and on recommendation from the manager, was the superb Broughton Winter Fire - so smooth it was like drinking velvet. After a couple of pints to put us on our way, we made a quick pit stop through Borough Market (foodie heaven!) and picked up a delicious turkey, stuffing and cranberry roll. Our hunger for food satiated, we continued on with our other hunger - for good beer.

Next stop was The George Inn - a famous old 17th coaching inn, mentioned by Charles Dickens in one of his books and protected by the National Trust. It is a brilliant building, even better in the summer when you can take advantage of the seats outside in the courtyard. Unfortunately, the ale selection is dominated by the uninspiring Greene King range, so after a quick pint of the house George Inn Ale (actually brewed by Adnams) we went in search of our next destination - The Charles Dickens.

A funny little local this one stuck in the middle of, well, of nowhere really. If I lived close by, I could definitely see this place being a popular spot for me - 6 very different cask ales and a cosy feel. Time for a one and a half pints and see the England rugby team lose once again, and then we were back into Borough and to the Wheatsheaf (a Youngs pub) so that the boys could watch the All Black test match against Wales. ABs too good once again, and so was the draw of The Market Porter next door once again, where I had the tasty Elgoods Old Black Shuck after the game.

Now probably with more beers than is good for us someone proposed the sensible idea of getting some food. Seeing that we had had curry the other night, it seemed stupid to give up a good thing and away we went for curry #2. After another good but of spice, it was off to our last pub that I had been saving for the end of the night. Unfortunately, one of us wasn't quite up the task....

The Rake is a new pub opened up by guys who run a beer stall in the Borough Markets. Reputedly the second smallest pub in London, it is a cool little place with a great selection of beer - both on tap and in the fridge. The Crouch Vale Amarillo on handpull was too tempting to deny - being reminiscent of the great Emersons Bookbinder. But someone wasn't up to the task, as Daygs decided that sleeping against our table was a much better idea. We did our best to make sure the table didn't go over with him and also to tell others in the bar that we were out celebrating the marathon he had run that day. It looked like the evening was soon up, though not before I treated the lads to a bottle of the incomparable Schlenkerla Rauchbier.

Eventually we gave in to taking our "marathon runner" home, which probably wasn't a bad idea for all of us, and we still had plenty of time to have fun with him on the train ride home.

For some more pics, click here.