A Canal Side Pub Has Demonstrated That Doing Something Correctly Can Pay Great Rewards
I live in the Black Country, the part of the Midlands which was nicknamed thus by Andrew Carnegie, the great American steel magnate, on a visit to the area and who was amazed that everything was coated in carbon dust from the thousands of furnaces which were being used to smelt iron-ore, fabricate steel, cast iron, glass, chains and operate the engines that powered the mines that dug out the coal to burn in the furnaces.
Because the industrial revolution took place here, we have a significant network of canals that criss-cross the part connecting the Midlands to the rest of the country. As a result, one of the major attractions to people coming is to spend some time on a boat out on the water, working their way along the old routes that moved the goods manufactured here to the world. Such people have curiously included Harrison Ford and his wife Calista Flockhart a couple of years ago.
And where there are canals, there will be pubs. And where there is a waterside pub, there should be a barbeque if the landlord has any sense. During the summer the bbq is an important part of the yearly turnover figures for anywhere that has one. One near here is well known for the food that comes off the charcoal grills and on a warm summer evening and during the weekend from lunchtime onwards the grounds are packed.
The inside of the pub has a restaurant area with the normal a la carte menu and specials board, but the bbq area is separate and works as a stand alone restaurant offering steaks, burgers, chops and sausages etc which can be ordered with home made marinades or plain. A fryer sits beside the charcoal grills turning out a steady stream of chips and to the side of that somebody is employed making salads and dressings. It is a magnificent operation that must have required a deep breath before building the shack in which everything sits and would not have been cheap.
One of the loveliest ways to while away a couple of hours on a sunny afternoon is to sit by the lock with a glass of wine and a barbeque steak and watch the boats rise and fall as people make their way to and from Wolverhampton and Kidderminster as the perfumed smoke from the bbq drifts across the garden. You can definitely see the effect it has on the people on the boats who frequently moor up as close as they can and make their way along the towpath and indulge themselves.
It’s another wonderful example of making the best of what there is and more as when the present team took it over it was, unbelievably, a failing business. This could have had a bit to do with the fact that it always shut on a Sunday afternoon which, for a country pub on the road to the local beauty spots and popular walkway was utter lunacy. Many is the occasion on a sunny afternoon when I worked at the local electricity board office I’d get a phone call closed to four o’clock and it would usually be somebody suggesting we all go for a beer by the canal. And it’s rude to say no. But now it is once again thriving, and giving meat lovers a barbeque treat as well as a lovely place to stop for a couple of hours.
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categories: bbq,barbeque
