BRAPA and ..... Man Bantz in Penzantz (Cornwall Part 6)

Day Three of my Cornwall holiday had so far been as painfully slow as my ability to write up the events since.

It was two weeks ago when I highlighted Pendeen and Ludgvan more with relief than joy, and wound my way back to Penzance, which had a pub tick (hurray!) which wasn't the Crown (ugh) for the first time in about 5000 years.

I've never really 'got' Penzance as a town before today, finding it a bit moody, but things were about to take a turn for the better, reward perhaps for the hours of hard graft I'd already put into this trying Thursday in far west Cornwall.

The pub in question featured in the debut 1974 and follow up 1975 editions of the Good Beer Guide, but never once since!  So you can imagine I was quite skeptical as to what was in store for me .....

The Dock Inn (1653 / 2623)  had the 'Penzance welcome' I'd come to expect from the town, not dissimilar to Newquay, where as a humble pub ticker, you are not treated with the same fantastical curiosity you would be in a small outlying village pub in say, Pendeen, but rather, you are 'just another foreign tourist' invading ze Kernow.  The staff looked at me with thin lips, watery eyes and slightly flaring nostrils, noting my over enthusiasm as I spied Spingo Middle, an ale I thought unique to the Blue Anchor in Helston.  And what a cracking pint it was.  Though I'll take this opportunity to tell you I'd have gone for the 'Special' given half the chance, as it totally knocked my socks off last year.   I stepped down from the raised bar into the heart of the pub where I could admire the nautical bare boarded beauty of the pub, though someone told me a fairly recent makeover had made it a bit more 'dining'.  And sure enough, a waitress appeared and asked if I was dining.  'NO' I replied, a bit more brusquely than I'd intended, and felt a bit ashamed.  It didn't deter her though, she came back two minutes later with a placemat, knife & fork, and a 'reserved' sign!  I looked up questioningly. "Don't worry, it isn't reserved" she told me, though her actions and the sign suggested quite the opposite!  With my head spinning, and it wasn't even the Spingo, two blokes spied my GBG which I'd lobbed out onto the table in an attempt to counterbalance the cutlery/reservation incident.  They asked what my game was.  "BRAPA" I told them and explained all, Clarissa style.  "I love Berkshire" said one of the blokes quite surprisingly, and before he could rip off his mask to reveal a Quinno/Tim Thomas soft centre, he asked me what pubs I liked in Reading and Windsor & Eton.  The other bloke was excited I'd done most of Ayrshire, and wanted my thoughts on Kilmarnock 'Spoons and the like.  They left, and with their hearts warmed having witnessed this exchange, the staff uncurdled their sour faces and smiled sweetly at me for the remainder of my time here.

My decision to rush Ludgvan earlier had proved a good one, for I still had enough time to kill to sample another pub somewhere between here and the station.

I considered the Dolphin next door, and the Turk's Head which I'd later hear good things about, but almost totally at random, I opted for Admiral Benbow, partly cos it had featured in GBG's 2012-2014, but also because it came up on Google Maps when I typed in my route from Dock Inn back towards station.  It looked nice from the outside .....

But my jaw almost hit the floor when I entered - what WAS this place?  It was busy, people were dressed in pantaloons and crazy old garb, bright red lipstick, some were trying to sing or dance, and a jolly barman served me from a healthy (interesting but not too many) range of local ales.  The place seemed to be shimmering with ornate decor and artefacts, but then from behind me, I heard a voice "are you following us around?" and I turned to see the Berkshire/Ayrshire men from the Dock Inn.  I told them this place was amazing, and they told me I'd not seen anything yet and motioned me to go and explore the depths of the pub, and deep it was.  "I'll never be able to do this place justice in my blog" I complained to them, as I sat in the one remaining seat next to them (lucky them).  The reaction on Twitter made me realise this was a famous pub, there was an even better upstairs I could've explored, a recent change of ownership 'might' be part of the reason it hasn't been in the GBG recently (my ale was stunning quality once again).  And right up until I was stood waiting for the shuttle bus at L**ds-Bradford airport on the way home, people were telling me about this place!  The previous owner has taken quite a lot of stuff with her, for it was even more festooned with amazing clutter before.  And it was the 'original' theme pub, and for that reason, it was actually sneered at a bit back in the day, but it has seemingly survived the test of time and grown in popularity.   What a fantastic one off!

So I'd like to thank Penzance for helping me salvage something from what would have otherwise been quite an average day.

Back at the station, I bought a Cornish Pasty cos it "just felt right"and a jolly bald man asked me if he thought it was a good idea to get in a giant deckchair, so I said it was, even though he inevitably struggled to get out and nearly missed the train.

And then for the long ride back to Quintrell Downs via Par, ready to do it ALL again tomorrow morning bright n early.  And I had a plan a mind which I'll tell you about in Part 7.

Thanks for reading.  Si