26/03/19 - Paul Pry, Worcester - Handsome Pub but....

Good Beer Guide Tick - #377

Part of our responsibilities for training a Guide Dog are to expose her to new experiences.

Today, she gets a visit to the Pride of Worcester's Community, The Hive.   A council that has invested in libraries.   My quarterly annual visits are akin to a ram raid on Waterstones but I do demand value from my Council Tax.

Just up along a road called the Butts is the Paul Pry.   This is almost a new experience for me as well the guide dog.   It used to keep very odd opening hours, closing at 6pm.   Since its been in the Good Beer Guide it appears to be operating more conventional hours.

Worcester Loves The Mystery of a Speeding Car

Even from my dodgy night time snap, you can see this is a classic looking boozer.   Worcester is blessed with some truly historical pubs (have a pint where Charles II hid after losing the Battle of Worcester, history fans) but none are quite as well tiled as this Grade II listed beauty.

For more history and a much better photo from 1962, have a look here.

What an entrance

A choice of a packed bar or a more sedate back room.   Joy (the dog, not Mrs M) needs to be exposed to company, so we enter into the bustle.

Its a test of her patience.   There's a house dog that has the run of the place.   He looks like he has escaped from a Tin Tin novel.   He loves the smell of a Guide Dog's privates.

Joy ignores him totally.   The training is going well.

Handsome pub, thriving customers, cute pub dog - lets see how the beer stands up.

We have a choice of three.   A stout (winter's over), a house branded Pale Ale (later determined to be from the Teme Valley Brewery) and a Hobson's Best Bitter. 

Hobsons Best on the Right of the Picture

When its good, its a fine pint.   This was at best average, on cusp of lifelessness.   I'll be interested to see what the 2020 Guide Brings as I remember the blogs from other respected Pub Tickers having much the same opinion a couple of months ago.

So, average pint - best to just soak up the interior and read all about Worcester's Beer Festival.

Joy will be delighted - there are other places here still to be discovered.

Lovely Mahogany Bar Surround