13/06/25 - The Good Beer Guide Pubs of Deal, Kent

2 Micros, a Trad and a 'Spoons Tea

I've wanted to visit Deal. Famous for smuggling, naval history and the only pier in Kent open to the public. It was ITV crime series Liar, with its never ending drone footage, they really whetted my appetite.

A lengthy first day resuming the Saxon Shore Way and I am here for the pubs. Three in the Good Beer Guide but first I need feeding.

The Sir Norman Wisdom - a JDW offering chicken in a basket and cask Jaipur for just over a tenner. My budget planning in full swing.

Pint - a thing of beauty for the obscene price of £2.29

A modern 'Spoons

This is Kent. There are going to be a lot of micros and we have two over the road from each other.

Knowledge required for The Just Reproach. I am experienced enough with micros to know that I need to find the chalk board on entry but this outlet throws up confusion. There is no bar. You need to look around for a server, who will probably identify you before you identify them. You order, they disappear to back room and bring back a pint that has definitely been gravity dispensed. That easy to fall into conversation with strangers that I have failed to record what it was. Most likely a traditional Kentish Ale, offering the highest ABV per £. That is my modus operandi and I am sticking with it.

The bench to my right was my home

Architecturally impossible to tell the difference between this and Smugglers Records over the road. Less choice on the cask but (from what I noticed) a much bigger selection of international bottled beers and keg offerings. One single cask (Howling Hops Party Wave), on display in a fridge, with the tap the only thing added since delivery from the brewery. Not hard to get in the Good Beer Guide, is it?

Not the first record shop I had drunk in

A peruse of the records. Nirvana's Bleach going for £36. I vow to have a sort out of my garage when I get home to fund future adventures.

A view from a window sill, leaning on a plate glass window

A pretty walk along the terraced buildings of many architectural style that is Middle Street. I am looking for the Ship Inn. The name that is always a guarantee of pub quality.

Unlike pubs with "Railway" in the name

Everything I look for in a pub. Low ceilings, atmospheric low lighting from candles in old brandy bottles, nooks and indeed crannies around a central bar. A second Gadds of the day, Number 5, leaving me with two questions. Will I ever see lacings, least of all a head on my beer this week? Was it really £3 a pint.

Time to head home for nature's fire-work display that is a quite spectacular thunder and lightening storm. Locals told me it was the best/worst that they have ever seen. Dover, where I am heading tomorrow, has parked cars floating down residential streets.