Norwich – The Leopard
I’m not sure how I haven’t written about the Leopard before, so it’s time to resolve that omission now as this is in the Good Beer Guide. Although I wasn’t intending to write about the pub when I was there (as I thought I had), so excuse the limited amount of photos.
The Leopard was a pub which was a little, well, unexciting several years ago and because of that it was one that I rarely visited. It found itself new landlords six or so years ago, although they’ve now moved on, but not before leaving a modernised and vibrant pub behind them. The Leopard also won the CAMRA branch pub of the year in 2019, a considerable achievement given the competition. The new landlords are welcoming and personable, so I’m sure that the pub will continue going from strength to strength.
This is informative and useful, there’s an ales/keg beer list, alongside the bottles and cans list. Nicely done, I like it. There isn’t the depth of choice that is offered at the nearby Artichoke, but there’s still plenty available and it’s far beyond what most pubs offer. The staff admitted themselves there was a slight lack of dark beers on the ales list at the moment, although this seems to be an availability issue. I’m sure they’ll be back later on in the year, but there was still a dark option to choose from, the Ampersand Forenoon (although I thought that had a thin mouthfeel, but the taste was pleasant). Having so many bottles and cans adds some variety and depth though, so it caters for pretty much any taste.
The staff members were knowledgeable as well, I like the welcome offered here and the service is attentive and warm. This is also one of my preferred pubs for working in during the day, I came here with my laptop several times last year and it’s a peaceful and calm environment with a sizeable beer garden. Not that I sit in the beer garden much, I think wasps are naturally attracted to me and that annoys me. The pub itself was clean and I liked that they’ve made it easy to understand the Covid-19 arrangements, with clear signage throughout.
I managed to try several drinks during the evening, although for anyone interested they can be seen at https://untappd.com/user/julwhite. I’m not sure there was anything I noted as exceptional, but I did enjoy the Peach Melba Sour from Pilot. I’m getting into sours now, although I still think that they’re something of an acquired taste for many drinkers (myself included in the past).
This is a photo from last year when Bev was trying to talk to the pub’s dog as if she was Doctor Dolittle. This is appropriate as she was here on this visit as well, we had arrived at the Leopard earlier on to have a long gossip about Gordon (it’s OK, he won’t read this) and the camping weekend of last week, before Steve and Rob came to join us later on. It was useful to hear Rob’s perspectives on future 100s, he’s another of those LDWA walkers that I think will just take part every year. I’m not sure that I entirely understand it, but I’m very impressed by it. I’m not entirely sure that Steve and Bev are that tempted into walking 100 miles, but they’re certainly becoming better at these longer distances 🙂
Anyway, I’ve started writing about the 100 again, which wasn’t my intention here. The Leopard is a decent pub which is one of my favourites in Norwich and I’d say that the service from the staff is perhaps one of the best of any pub in the city. So, all really rather lovely and I look forwards to many more visits (and its closeness to the Artichoke makes it easy to pop to both).
