Pints in the 'Pool

The Cavern Club

Address: 10 Mathew Street Liverpool, L2 6RE

‘The most famous club in the World’ the advertising boasts. That maybe so, who knows. Personally, I was always a big fan of the Ritzy in Bromborough, however, sadly that no longer exists. Given that the real ‘home’ of the Beatles was down the road, and has been re-built here, maybe the Ritzy can follow suit…

Anyway, despite it’s fame, this place had bizarrely escaped our radar before. For some reason, although the doors are generally open most lunchtimes, we’d got it into our heads that it was just open for tourists to have a nose, and that the bar wouldn’t be open. Today though, after a visit to the Grapes to verify that our framed picture had been removed (yes folks it was in the Grapes, and was up there for 3 months. There’ll be another opportunity to see us in vests coming to another boozer soon..), we decided to head in as they were advertising live music.

My own recollections of this place are of miserable evenings, spent crammed in twenty feet underground, sweating like a rapist, whilst - again bizarrely - this was my ‘born and bred’ scouse colleague’s first ever trip down the Cavern Club stairs.

We ambled down the stairwell and discovered to our delight that the bar was indeed open. It was busy too.

After purchasing our Britney’s (in plastic pint pots), we took up a standing spec to watch the live act. My colleague actually took a video, which maybe attached to this blog, but the local lad performing was actually quite good. It was nice that he wasn’t just knocking out Beatles tunes too. They can over do it in these parts.

There were a good hundred or so patrons in the house, and I would guess that the vast majority were tourists. Certainly we were the only blokes in suits, until one particularly special chap came in and wandered and jigged about on his own with a bottle of Bud.

One thing that I’ve never noticed on previous visits, was that the brick walls and ceilings are covered in rather lame graffiti, was consisted pretty much of peoples names and quite a few bits of EFC and LFC nonsense.

We enjoyed our visit so much that we actually stayed for 2 in here, which given we’d had one in the Grapes, was pretty wild for a Thursday.

With the Mathew St festival coming up, we felt we’d done our bit without the necessity to come back at the weekend when all the boozers will be horribly packed and you’re forced to trudge the streets with lukewarm cans of lager in the name of entertainment.

Price time -

Guinness & Fosters £6.40

Video

Adults only bar - Holiday Village - sharm el sheikh (Egypt)

Well I have just got back from a two week holiday in Sharm el sheikh (Egypt). I stayed at a little place called the Holiday village in Nabq Bay. If anybody is thinking of a holiday to Sharm I would say this is one of the best hotels. 90% English. It’s a great place with great people and very hot!

It was awesome all you can eat and DRINK from 9am till 12am. Come 12am though you do have to pay for the drinks so that’s how I know the price if you were wondering.

Its called the adults only bar because no kids are allowed in here unlike all the other bars in the hotel. Not because it’s some seedy sex club!! I know you were all thinking it :). All though it does have a sex mad Scottish entertainer called Cameron. He likes boobs but who doesn’t. He’s a good lad though don’t judge him.

Bottle of Luxor (500ml)

Price time - 33 Egyptian pounds (£3.30) 

Bar CA VA

Address - 4 Wood Street, Liverpool, L1 4AQ

What a great couch.

My colleague spotted that this place maybe open as we were sat nursing a couple of Britney’s over the road in the Empire. You don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, so we raced over, giddy with excitement.

We walked in to utter silence. A barmaid was spotted at the far end, so my chum politely asked if they were definitely open. She confirmed that they were, although looked slightly miffed that we had disturbed her. The only other person we saw as we strolled to the bar was another lady, who was sat down counting what we assumed to be last nights takings. She didn’t hang round for long, and in hindsight we should have followed her out and nobbled her. However I am not really that type of guy. I cannot vouch for my chum however.

You don’t generally expect a great atmosphere of a lunch time (except Fridays or race days), but it was dire in here, no music, no other patrons, nothing. We purchased our drinks and went to sit down. Two couches were placed opposite each other and looked good for us, but on closer inspection neither of us was tempted by the one above, so we sat next to each other on one like a couple of nancy boys.

The walls are decorated with various posters of something or other, but I didn’t really pay too much attention, so can’t really elaborate. I was too busy trying not to get too close to my chum.

There is an upstairs area that we didn’t venture up to, but several other staff members came in to cater for the hordes and headed in that direction.

Not planning a return trip anytime soon.

Price time -

Guinness & Fosters £5.50

Can you find this picture?? Free pint if you do.

My colleague and I had a special picture taken just for this blog (See below).

We felt a bit like tits because we had to stand outside in vests, but needs must.

We have placed this picture in one of the boozers on our list. Below is the picture as it is on the wall right now (still there as at 1.55pm, 25th May 2011). We have placed the picture there without the permission of the pub owner so if you do find it don’t make it obvious please.

If you fancy a trek around the pubs of Liverpool to try to find it, let us know if you do and we will gladly provide you with a free pint. I should add that we are referring to pints of beer of some description, not pints of vodka etc. We are not made of money.

If you do find it tweet us @pintsinthepool

Happy hunting

Up to date pub & price list. (As of Feb 2011)

If anybody knows of any pubs in Liverpool City Centre that aren’t on the list and are open of a lunch time (1pm-2pm) please feel free to let us know so we can go.

Thanks

Price for two pints

1. The Swan Inn -£5.20

2. The Dispensary - £5.90

3. Matou Pan Asian Resturant - £7.40

4. Doctor Duncans - £5.80

5. Ship & Mitre - £5.80

6. Vauxhall Vaults - £4.95

7. The William Gladstone - £4.50

8. Paddy’s Lounge Bar - £4.50

9. Newz Bar - £6.40

10. The Crown - £4.35

11. Smokey Mo’s - £5.39

12. Masquerade Bar - £5.60

13. Poste House - £4.78

14. The Curzon Club‎ - £6.20

15. The Lisbon - £5.40

16. Jupiters - £4.90

17. McHale’s Shamrock Hotel‎ - £3.75

18. Rose and Crown - £5.40

19. Shenanigans Irish Bar - £5.10

20. The Crocodile - £4.50

21. The Pen & Wig - £4.30

22. Centro Coffee and Juice Bar - £6.60 - (CLOSED DOWN)

23. The Pumphouse - £6.20

24. Central Commercial Hotel - £4.95

25. The Midland Hotel - £4.45

26. The Globe - £5.55

27. Echo Arena - £7.00

28. The Punch & Judy - £3.75

29. Coopers - £6.30

30. Revolution Bar - £6.60

31. The Slug and Lettuce - £6.48

32. The White Star - £5.70

33. Hanover Hotel - McCartney’s Bar - £5.05

34. Old Post Office - £5.50

35. The Blob Shop - £3.75

36. Carnarvon Castle - £5.20

37. The Beehive - £5.41

38. Andersons bar - £6.40

39. Vernon Arms - £5.20

40. Remeniss 90s Bar - £5.50

41. The Famous Grapes - £6.85

42. The Beaconsfield - £5.20

43. ‘The Bar’ Liverpool Airport - £3.45 (1 pint)

44. The Cavern Pub - £5.50

45. Flanagans Apple - £5.45

46. The Welkin - £5.14

47. Yates’s - £5.40

48. Ma Boyles - £5.75

49. The Richmond ‘Hotel’ - £4.30

50. The Pig and Whistle - £5.70

51. The Exchange - £5.15

52. The Lion Tavern - £5.95

53. The Railway - £5.20

54. Lady of Mann - £5.65

55. Thomas Rigby’s - £5.90

56. First National - £5.30

57. The saddle Inn - £5.50

58. Ye Hole in Ye Wall - £4.80

59. The Slaughterhouse - £5.90

60. Goose at The Queens - £4.45

61. The River View - £5.17

62. Cross Keys - £5.95

63. The Restaurant Bar and Grill - £7.90

64. The Liverpool - £5.68

65. The Corn Market - £6.00

66. The Hogs Head - £4.25

67. Coopers - £4.90

68. Riley’s - £3.65

69. Ruben’s Bar - £4.50 - (CLOSED DOWN)

70. The Shakespeare - £5.10

71. Kozy’s - £3.85

72. Rat & Parrot - £5.00 - (CLOSED DOWN)

73. Puzzle - £4.80 - (CLOSED DOWN)

74. Merchants - £6.50

75. Empire - £5.60

76. O’Neill’s - £5.45

77. Head of steam - £5.33

78. Ma Egertons - £5.50

79. JR’s - £4.60

80. Tess Rileys - £4.70

81. The Noble House - £7.75

82. Rubber Soul - £4.75

83. All Bar One - £7.40

84. Lennon’s Bar - £3.90 

85. The Marlborough (Slater St) - £3.90

86. The Jacaranda (Slater St) - £3.50

87. The Faculty (Slater st) - £4.10

88. Slaters Bar (Slater st) - £3.90

89. James Monro - £5.73

90. Bier Keller - £6.70

91. Durty Nelly’s (London rd) - £4.00

92. The Officers Mess - £5.60

93.  Living Room - £7.00 

94. Picture House - £3.95 - (CLOSING DOWN)

95. The Lord Warden - £4.20

96. The Flute (Hardman St) - £4.55

97. Fly in the loaf (Hardman St) - £6.00 

98. The Liffey - £4.00

99. Renshaw’s - £4.50

100. Baltic Fleet - £6.10

101. The Abbey - £5.85

102. The Old Rope Walk - £5.40

103. Brownlows - £3.60

104. The Beehive - £3.80

105. The New Penny Farthing - £3.90

106. The Post Office (London Rd) - £4.50

107. Royal George (London rd) - £3.90

108. The Excelsior - £5.90

109. Roscoe Head - £5.95 

110. The Grapes - £5.65  

111. The Philharmonic - £5.90 

112. Ye Crake - £5.40

113. Wrights Bar - £5.30

114. The pilgrim - £5.40

115. Roscoes - £4.40

116. The vines - £5.80

117. Fall Well - £4.65

118. The Caledonia- £5.60

119. Blackburne Arms- £5.40

120. Pogue Mahone (Top - Seel St) - £5.55

121. Peter Kavanaghs - £5.85

122. The Belvedere Arms (Sugnall St) - £6.20   

123. Smokie mo’s - £5.90 

124. Wetherspoons - £5.60

125. The Oxford - £

126. Cambridge - £

Lack of write-ups in the last few weeks

Just a quick update for all our followers. We have two pubs left to do in Liverpool City Centre - The Oxford & Cambridge (It’s going to be a boat race bonanza) both are quite a walk for us and don’t seem to be open of a lunch time. We know this because we’ve made a few trips up there only to find them closed. Hopefully the summer months will bring a change to this and they will be open for our business.

Also here is a bit of inside information. During the next couple of months we are going to broaden our horizons and branch out to Birkenhead. Keep an eye out for “Pints in Birkenhead”.

What wonders will the strange land over the Mersey behold??

Wetherspoons - William John Blackler

Address - Charlotte Row, 53 Great Charlotte St, Liverpool, L1 1HU

Usual fare, although they’d tried to dress things up a bit by giving it the William John Blackler title. There was a bit of info on the wall about the boy Blackler, but it’s that long ago, that I don’t remember exactly what it said. I’m sure it was all good though. Possibly in the same way that the Liverpool Echo will always describe a well known criminal as a local ‘businessman’ rather than a drug dealer, and a real horrible scroat as a ‘loveable rogue’.

This place is big on size, but little on character. Nothing much on the cards here I’m afraid.

Just another regular Wetherspoons with a lot of students eating lunch on the two for £10 offer. We got our pints and sat by the window peering out across the road at The Blob, and wishing we were there. Sure enough, we drank up, and as if by magic our dream came true. If you want something enough you’ll have it. This is especially true after a few pints. In my time I’ve been a top dancer, a superb comedian, and been probably the hardest person I know. The following morning, I’ve also been sick.
 

Price time -

Guinness & Carling £5.60

Smokie Mo’s

Address - 9-13 Temple Court, Liverpool, L2 6PY

Situated in Liverpool’s ‘Cavern Quarter’, Smokey Mo’s is rarely open of a lunch time, catering more for the Friday and Saturday night crowds. However, today we struck lucky. Well, ‘lucky’ probably does this venue too much credit, as much like it’s name sake on Brownlow Hill, the clientele seem to have dragged from the local bail hostel.

Two gents met us at the doorway. Bouncers ?. Well perhaps they were in their earlier careers, but now they had opted to become a pungent pair of tramps. They kindly allowed us past though.

It was much as I remembered it from my last visit. Large open plan, basic layout. There is a decent sized area upstairs too, but we chose to sit downstairs to ‘people watch’ through the windows. Not much happened. The two tramps came in and sat with two other friends, Alcoholic Mo and I’ll Soil my Trousers Today Mo. They babbled drunkenly together before departing and crossing over to Reminiss. Reminiss was welcome to them.

The ale wasn’t that clever either.

Overall, I think that Smokey Mo’s just misses out on our top 100 pubs.

Price time -

Guinness & Fosters £5.90

The Belvedere Arms

Address - 8 Sugnall Street, Liverpool, L7 7EB

Again well off the beaten track for lunchtime shandies, we took the car option to get here.

This place comes highly recommended by CAMRA, and has appeared in many editions of the Good Beer Guide. It is also a Grade II Listed pub. On approach we noticed that it has a relatively large seating area outside, which probably makes up for the snugness of the interior. On going inside we were met with 2 doors. Do we go left or right ?. We plumped for right, and in we went to the ‘main’ bar area. Most Council house kitchens will be bigger than this room, but it is certainly unique, and full of a damn sight more character than your average Wetherspoons. The left hand door would have taken us to the ‘lounge’. Whereupon we would have been served through a hatch. The only other patron had taken this option.

Always keen to experiment, we ordered a Guinness, a Becks (quite diverse for my wing-man), and a bag of scratchings, and sat at the bar. The barman seemed unimpressed by our choice of ‘commercial’ beverages and largely stayed hidden away throughout our stay.

With real coal fires in both rooms it would probably be very cosy here in the depths of winter, and I reckon that real ale conoisseurs are well catered for.

Another one off the list.

Price time -

Guinness & Becks £6.20

Peter Kavanagh’s

Address - 2-6 Egerton Street, Liverpool, L8 7LY

Well, what a find this was.

My colleague had mentioned this place quite a while ago, describing it as a pub thrown in amongst regular housing. He wasn’t quite sure he remembered how to get here though, so we made a few wrong turns in his magnificent automobile before we parked up, to stares from a member of a contracting team doing work in the road. Not sure what his problem was, but we were thirsty so we walked past and into Peter Kavanagh’s booze emporium.

It is as described, just thrown in on quite a well to do street of terraced houses. I’ve read that it was once smaller and just occupied the corner of the street, but has since expanded into a couple of these houses. There were just a sprinkling of other patrons, who seemed unperturbed by our entry. We ordered up and sat in a largish two tiered room (the top tier was roped off and I think was for those after a bit of tucka). Elsewhere there were two snugs.

There was bric-a-brac everywhere, as I think you can make out in one of the photo’s above. The theme - if any - appeared to be radio’s, as there were at least 25 that we counted hanging from the ceiling. Very handy, if we had the urge to catch the shipping forecast. In line with several other boozers that we have visited, they also had a bike hanging from the wall. Legend has it that Olympic gold medallist Chris Boardman would often neck a dozen or so pints in here before cycling back to the Wirral, with his aerodynamic helmet on show..

Although we only managed a half hour shift in here, we did become fans. I can imagine it being quite atmospheric with a few punters in, and given that it’s quite dark inside, it’s one of those places that you could happily spend a few hours in, and not have a clue what time it was when you came out. Actually thinking about it, after a few hours in most pubs, I haven’t got a clue what time it is when I step outside.

When we departed, we were pleased to find that Mr Grumpy hadn’t keyed my chum’s car, and we sang merrily all the way back to work.

Price time -

Guinness & Fosters £5.85

Pogue Mahones

Address - 77 Seel Street, Liverpool, L1 4BB

Firstly, apologies to our legion of followers, we haven’t updated this site for some time. I’d like to give a good reason, but it is due to general apathy.

One of Liverpool’s well known Irish pubs, it is situated just over the road from the legendary ‘Raz’ or Blue Angel as it’s officially called. If you haven’t pulled within 30 minutes of stepping foot in there, then either there’s something seriously wrong with you, or your partner has gone in there with you.

Anyway, enough about the Raz, pack to Pogue’s. A decent sized boozer with a seating area with comfy looking sofa’s and a roaring fire to your left immediately as you walk in, the bar to your right and another seating area just past this. We opted to sit in this area.

It almost goes without saying, that they had plastered the walls with various bits of tat and general memorabilia. Indeed there was an impressive collection of what I assume to be Gaelic Football shirts adorning the higher part of the walls. I would guess so that they weren’t nicked after after a few ales. The chalk boards also advertised forthcoming Gaelic football fixtures to be shown live.

The Guinness was good, and I’m told that the lager was up to scratch (ie. tasteless fizzy water).

Price time -

Guinness & Carling £5.55

Blackburne Arms

Address - 24 Catherine Street, Liverpool, L8 7NL

After the effort of getting up here this place is just next door to the Caledonia which was a bonus. It’s more of an eatery than a boozer. We walked in and the first thing that hit us was a very very nasty smell, we couldn’t put our finger on what it was, but you know when there is a smell you get used to it after a while. Well this smell we didn’t, it was that bad!

It is a well enough appointed gaff, and had a few punters in. Obviously one of those had been trumping away happily. Not really much more to say about this place I’m afraid, apart from bring your gas mask if you’re thinking about going there.

P.S. We were 20 minutes late back to work.

Price time -

Guinness & Carling £5.40

The Caledonia

Address - 22 Caledonia Street, Liverpool, L7 7DX

This one and the one above are new additions to our original list. We didn’t plan on coming here because it is a fair way from our office and we knew we would be late back to work. But we decided to do our usual power walking through the busy city streets weaving in and out of the slow a$$ shoppers getting in our way and made it within 15 minutes. Not bad.

We stepped in and were greeted with a friendly hello from the barmaid. She poured our pints and we sat down in the back part of the pub to admire and take in the place. My colleague had worked up a bit of a sweat on route, so nipped to the loo’s for a ‘courtesy buff’. He returned in a state of angst shortly afterwards, complaining that there was no bog roll.

There were two solo’s in the pub, one young lad on his own enjoying a pint and Caledonia Brian “A Brummie” he was having a right rant to the barmaid about not caring what people thought about him, apart from her and Kelly. God knows who Kelly is because she was the only one working.  We could hear exactly what he was saying because the place was quiet and we do eves drop a lot.

Price time -

Guinness & Carling £5.60

Fall Well

Address - St Johns Shopping Centre, Liverpool, L1 1LS

We didn’t really want to do this place because it’s just another typical Weatherspoon’s chain.  But it is in the heart of the City Centre. We all know what to expect from these places, cheap ale with no atmosphere and a lot of students and out of towners taking advantage of the free Wi-Fi. But for all our loyal followers we must take the good with the bad.

My colleague had to be brave and go in here on his own and get the pints in, as I had to pop in Argos and pick up something. I wasn’t long behind him but he’d got the pints in and found us a seat. We noticed our old friend was in. The DVD lady that goes from pub to pub selling illegal DVDs 4 for £10. By now she knows our faces having seen us out and about in many different boozers over the last year. See doesn’t speak that much English but always comes over to say hello (in a Chinese accent) and ask if we want any dvds dvds…

I am convinced she makes more money than both of us by the amount of merchandise she has and the amount she sells in the short time we are there. I’m sure the money goes to a good cause too..

Price time -

Guinness & Carling £4.65