Boak & Bailey (Jess & Ray)

We've gone to The Old Stillage which is *also* lively and busy. Big Sunday.

Had to give up on The Swan With Two Necks because it was too loud and too busy. But bloody good for them!

Arthur Taylor's book might have something. We'll check when we get a chance.

When did the game of darts become associated with pubs? We all know that in the UK if you want to play darts you head to the pub. But where did this association between pubs and darts begin?

BLOG POST: Dartboards and pubs go together, everyone knows that. But how long has that been the case? And, actually, how old is darts as a game? 🍺🍻

boakandbailey.com/2026/03/when...

A screenshot of CampaignForRealPubCarpets.co.uk the title has a picture of a pub carpet behind it. Below a subheading says Blogging and below that the initial post says, in time-honoured fashion, TEH BUZZ...

Uh oh...

Ha, so, we nearly linked to this in the footnotes. We often find ourselves sitting next to Nicola at The Swan With Two Necks and we've spoken to her a few times. When we were there last weekend some visitors to town told her they'd toured the pubs from her first video and she was delighted.

I visited Maddens in Belfast in the early 2000s and was buzzed in/on camera, but context is important in this case...

And Steve is here --> @steveuntilnextyear.bsky.social

There's two (out of ~800) bars you need to be buzzed in to in Dublin. One good one with an eccentric owner who vets everyone, one cocktail bar trying to pretend its in the Prohibition era. So not unheard of but definitely rare

We'd forgotten this. We're quite proud of it.

Is BrewDog Punk IPA still a decent beer? We recently found ourselves sticking up for BrewDog Punk IPA on social media, much as we might be critical of the brewery as a business.

We also find that pretty annoying! We wrote something about it last year:

boakandbailey.com/2025/08/is-b...

We've also just realised that we were at Unwin's taproom at the same time as the Finnish bloke mentioned in the footnotes post and clocked him asking what the "unusual" name of the brewery could possibly mean.

Footnotes on news, nuggets and longreads 7 March 2026 | Boak & Bailey Get more from Boak & Bailey on Patreon

And here are the footnotes, just for Patreon supporters, with more BrewDog links, more thoughts on gentrification, and a pointer to a piece of short fiction set in a pub.

www.patreon.com/posts/152445...

News, nuggets and longreads 7 March 2026: The Lonely Londoners Every Saturday we round up the best writing about beer from the past week. This time, we’ve got pub influencers, brewery sales and buzzers. We usually start these round-ups with an item or two of beer...

GOOD MORNING! Here's the latest edition of news, nuggets and longreads, with a bit on BrewDog, and several links that connect with and echo each other in pleasing ways on influencers and gentrification. 🍻🍺

boakandbailey.com/2026/03/news...

An alternative sports bar (or a bar for alternative sports) I love watching sport in the pub but some of the sports I enjoy watching most are simply not on offer. Where can I watch curling with a pint?

BLOG POST: Jess on the difficulty of watching anything but the most mainstream sports in the pub and why she dreams of something better. 🍺🍻

boakandbailey.com/2026/03/an-a...

For Patreon subscribers, some further thoughts on this:

www.patreon.com/posts/152336...

Transworld Sport(sbar)

I remember trying to convince the owners of a local brewery I was brewer at to show the Women's World Cup in France in the bar in 2019. People will watch *any* football when the Premiership has finished I argued. You'd think I was trying to make all the west Cumbrians woke or something!

An alternative sports bar (or a bar for alternative sports) I love watching sport in the pub but some of the sports I enjoy watching most are simply not on offer. Where can I watch curling with a pint?

BLOG POST: Jess on the difficulty of watching anything but the most mainstream sports in the pub and why she dreams of something better. 🍺🍻

boakandbailey.com/2026/03/an-a...

Pubs for the people by Sivamohan Valluvan, Amit Singh | Waterstones Buy Pubs for the people by Sivamohan Valluvan, Amit Singh from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.

"Amit Singh and Sivamohan Valluvan... [wage] battle against those who see the pub only as a poignant symbol of a bygone England... [taking] on private equity, yuppie gentrifiers and culture-war blowhards who use the pub as a prop for their rage-baiting patriotism."

I have a plea - does anyone know of any pubs in London that reliably sell any Midlands bitter / golden ale? I've been left with a terrible cask craving after my visit to Hereford. Looking for something with good body, not too "thin", bit of malt sweetness...

It's not as bad as that. He seems very nice and several people have got chatting to him, and had a go.

There's a man in the pub with a VR headset and two controllers. He has not yet knocked over his pint.

Patron, un Demi! — On France’s PMU Bars and Keeping Working-Class Spaces Alive — Pellicle It’s noon and, since it doesn’t serve food, I expect Le Mustang in Saint-Nolff, Brittany to be almost empty when I push through the doors. The place is packed regardless. Construction workers stand to...

Stories like this make me smug as all hell to be deputy editor of @pelliclemag.com

@anahlcq.bsky.social is the best drinks and working class culture writer in the world right now. I said what I said.

www.pelliclemag.com/home/2026/2/...

As commenter Rhys points out, we spoke too soon re: influencers...

www.theguardian.com/food/2026/ma...

You see this a lot here in Dublin when stag groups are in town...a big reason I've started doing more 'best pubs for...' since everyone has different criteria.

Still not including 'The Temple Bar' on any 'best of' list I'd ever make, though...

Text: "Chimay introduces Chimay Yellow, a new 6.5% blonde Trappist beer" Photo: stock shot of a bottle of Chimay yellow and a glass full of beer in a branded Chimay chalice, on an outdoor wooden table

hi, trappist brewery expert here! this is not funny, trappist breweries only do this when they're in extreme distress.

Manchester’s Best Beers, Pubs and Bars 2nd edition (2026) - CAMRA shop Guidebook to more than 220 pubs, bars, tap rooms and bottleshops in Manchester and its boroughs such as Bolton, Trafford and Rochdale. Available April 2, 2026

Pre-orders are the lifeblood for authors, especially for niche titles from small publishers like @camraofficial.bsky.social. You can now order the 2nd edition of Manchester's Best Beer, Pubs and Bars direct here:

shop1.camra.org.uk/product/manc...

Do you really want to visit the best pub in town? Modern tourism is often defined by a desire to see, visit, eat and drink the best a city has to offer. But everyone has a different idea of what ‘the best pub’ means.

BLOG POST: In pursuit of 'the best in town' people often end up in pubs they hate. 🍻🍺

boakandbailey.com/2026/03/do-y...

#BrewDog latest: James Watt now out of the race to buy back the company. Advanced talks with Denmark's Royal Unibrew & Dublin based C&C, owners of Tennent's & Magners & Bulmers cider. Neither wants the pubs. Breweries only. #BskyBeer