Written by Andrew F.
The first coincided with Sheffield’s heritage weekend so a nice mix of culture and beer seemed appropriate, starting with a tour of Cutlers Hall (very ornate and interesting) and the Cathedral by which time a beer at The Old Shoe was calling.
A first visit to The Old Shoe, as it missed out our club crawl last year. It’s a great modern bar offering 21 kegs and 2 cask beers, together with fridges for takeouts. Pretty quiet and laid back at lunch but a nice vibe
Next up, The Fargate. A large Thornbridge corner pub (another first visit) with all the usual suspects on draught, some guests too and decent keg offerings including Salopian, Verdant and Weihenstephaner.
The order was a pint of Jaipur and a decent pizza.
Stepping across the square was culture, with a visit to the Town Hall. A Victorian, very functional municipal building. It was a bit bizarre wandering in among wedding guests; apparently they had something like 15 weddings on the day as well as the Heritage visitors!
After the Town Hall we were off the Hop Hideout in Leah’s Yard. Not our first visit and a small room and tap list but a true champion of craft beer in Sheffield that deserves support.
Last stop of the day was Kapital, another first and relatively new bar focussing on continental lagers. Very busy and noisy at 5ish, the Ayingerbrau was good as expected but sadly bottled. Plenty of people were enjoying the draft Budvar.
Our second long weekend was a chance to catch up with friends, but the arrangements left us free to explore on Saturday.
As we’d already pencilled in lunch, back the centre it was via the Number 31 Bus and what a result that was. Not only does it run past the front of the Blind Monkey, a lovely pub which warrants another visit, but it also stopped directly outside our first port of call The Crow Inn.
The Crow was on the itinerary for last year’s club crawl but missed out. It is a sister pub to the Rutland so the beer was excellent and a good range of cask to choose from.
After a very pleasant and relaxed lunch at Aux Bon Vivant on Campo Lane, definitely worth a visit if you are in the area, we popped into the Old Shoe and the Fargate for a couple of pints. The Shoe is definitely a much busier place early evening, but there was plenty of space upstairs at the Fargate though you do have to negotiate several flights of steps to get a beer.
Sheffield definitely needs revisiting.