London – Shoreditch – Goose Island Brewpub
This one was Nathan’s recommendation (he’ll be here next week to buy an expensive bottle, more on which later on in this post) which was the Goose Island Brewpub, located a short walk from London Liverpool Street railway station.
All on-trend and modern, there was a relaxed atmosphere and the staff member at the bar was friendly and helpful. Actually, the staff were always engaging and welcoming, the service style was all quite American.
The beer selection is chalked up on the board and it’s also printed out and available on-line. Goose is an American company and they have a few brewpubs there, so that’s somewhere else that I have to go when I return to the United States. Their main operation is in Chicago, which I visit most years (well, those when there’s not a pandemic on), so I shall make sure I go there for the real deal (that sounds a dreadful phrase, but let’s live with it). They also have international outlets in Seoul, Shanghai, San Paulo and Toronto, as well as this one in London.
There were no shortage of tables when I went, and it remained relatively quiet during the entire time that I was in there.
The downstairs brewing area.
On the left is the Eire of the Dog, a rather luxurious little beer which has caramel and chocolate flavours, very decadent after my meal. On the left, which was my starter before the food (and during it) is the Ruby which is a rhubarb sour. There was a suitable sharpness from the rhubarb, but it remained drinkable and I liked the flavour, although the aftertaste wasn’t particularly rich.
As it was a Wednesday when I went, the food was half price as part of the Government’s ‘eat out to help out’ campaign. So, this pizza was around £6 and was larger than I had expected, even though they said it was 12 inches on the menu. All filling and the Italian sausage was excellent, very sausagey. I liked the serving style as well which wasn’t on a plate, it made it easy to plough on with work whilst sitting in a bar. I say this, I spend most of my time doing work in bars, restaurants and pubs, but I must admit a little bit of that time is used faffing around on WhatsApp. Perhaps I need to get out more….
The payment process was swift and I was pleased to see that, unexpectedly, the Amex Shop Small kicked in, which meant that I got £5 off the bill. So, all of this meant that I was able to get two drinks and a pizza for £7.50. How very lovely. I await to hear how much Nathan spends next week when he cracks open the bottle of Bourbon County Brand Stout, which I must admit sounds rather delicious.
