A word of warning to all of those people who wish to do experiential learning whilst in Norwich – start early.\u00a0 Like many of the other people in Dickinson Humanities 310, I have been having an issue with organizations responding to me, let along promptly responding.\u00a0 So, with the clock ticking ominously in my ears, it was time to get a little bit creative.\u00a0 Instead of volunteering my time and free labor to the local\u00a0festivals of Norwich and Norfolk like I was counting on (honestly, who doesn’t like\u00a0fifteen-plus hours of free paper pushing, stuffing envelopes, and filing?), I had to think a bit further outside of the box.\u00a0 So far outside that it has pushed me into pubs… darn.<\/p>\n
One of the festivals I am looking at for the research portion of the paper is the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA)\u00a0Norwich Beer Festival.\u00a0\u00a0According to their website, this\u00a0organization and festival promote “good-quality cask conditioned beers (commonly referred to as ‘real ale’), allied to traditional Brisith breweries and pubs.”\u00a0\u00a0 However, what really caught my eye was their goal to support local pubs that serve not only real ale, but also invoke a sense of community.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Last night, I ventured out of my cosy flat and wandered the wet streets of Norwich.\u00a0 I had\u00a0four main questions that I wanted to answer; 1) Does this pub serve real ales, as defined by CAMRA?\u00a0 2) What imported beers\/ales does this pub serve?\u00a0 3) How traditional is the pub in decor?\u00a0 4) What atmosphere does this pub give off?\u00a0 The three pubs I visited last night answered these questions very differently.<\/p>\n
My first stop yesterday evening was to the Mischief Tavern.\u00a0 Of the three pubs I went to, this one was the most traditional.\u00a0 There were lit\u00a0open fireplaces, a well-worn hard wooden floor, crooked staircases, and even a beautiful pressed tin roof with exposed roof timber beams running through it.\u00a0 It was spacious, yet cozy, with both large and small tables that added to the comfortable sense of community.\u00a0 Although there were a number of loud Americans running and dancing around the place, locals of all ages were enjoying a nice drink.<\/p>\n
\u00a0This pub served real ales, and even had a couple of signs promoting it, but you had to look carefully in order to see them.\u00a0 Much more obvious were the colorful and flashy logos of Budweiser, Heineken, and Tiger.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The second pub I went to was Delaney’s Irish Pub.\u00a0 Now, I know it seems slightly odd that in my quest for a traditional English pub serving traditional English ales, I went to an Irish pub.\u00a0 However, in my defense, other than a couple of Irish proverbs on the walls and the fact that they sold Guinness and Jameson, there was nothing remotely Irish about it.\u00a0 (In fact, I might even go so far as to say it was one of the least-Irish Irish pubs I have ever been to.\u00a0 I am slightly confused as to what exactly “Irish Tapas” is…)\u00a0 They did not sell any real ales and focused mainly on imports of Guinness, Fosters, and the like.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0The pub did, however, have an odd sense of community about it.\u00a0 They had pictures of people who had been there previously taped to the\u00a0underside of the staircase and giant games of Connect-Four and Jenga for patrons to play with.\u00a0 There were seperate high tables that could fit four or five chairs around them at most scattered just far enough away from each other to give the illusion of privacy, but still with the ability to draw another table into conversation.<\/p>\n
The third and final pub from last night was the Belgian Monk.\u00a0\u00a0The Monk is more high-end, with imported fruity beers and a wonderful sit-down restaurant.\u00a0 The decor in the Monk includes posters in German, a library, and small tables with which to sip a frothy concoction of your choice.\u00a0 A large portion of the indoor tables are taken up by the restaurant, as opposed to the pub, and tend to attract a clientele that has a bit more money than your average college student.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 The Belgian Monk is most certainly not a traditional English pub.\u00a0 Much like with the Irish pub, it might seem slightly odd that I am including it at all in my blog post.\u00a0 My reasoning is simple – all of the pubs I visited fill a niche in Norwich.\u00a0The Belgian Monk is a restaurant, Delaney’s is an Irish pub, and the Mischief is a more traditional English pub.\u00a0 I know that from three pubs, I can’t conclude anything about CAMRA’s presence in Norwich.\u00a0 However, my next time out, I hope to come across more of the traditional English pubs in Norwich that CAMRA rightfully brags about.<\/p>\n
Total time – 4 hours<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A word of warning to all of those people who wish to do experiential learning whilst in Norwich – start early.\u00a0 Like many of the other people in Dickinson Humanities 310, I have been having an issue with organizations responding to me, let along promptly responding.\u00a0 So, with the clock ticking ominously in my ears, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[744,92],"tags":[2212,1419,2213,1919,2211,2214,1950],"class_list":["post-2292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kelley","category-pubs","tag-belgian-monk","tag-camra","tag-delaneys","tag-experience","tag-mischief","tag-real-ale","tag-tradition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2292\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}