I’d been looking for an excuse to blog about a boozer in Melbourne and Humphrey the Labradoodle gave me the perfect opportunity.
A week off work was a perfect opportunity to celebrate and a Friday night saw Mrs BB and the kids joined me in The Blue Bell Inn in Melbourne, which I have already blogged about and is a classic Melbourne boozer.
Whilst I was enjoying a very tidy pint of Tiger (Everards)
Humphrey came to my aid and was keen to serve me another pint and I have to say he was far chattier then some barstaff I have met in the past!
Anyway, aside from this little gem there is also The White Swan – home of Bill and Ray – that I also visited along with The Chip and Pin and Harpur’s so there is a veritable array ‘proper’ boozers in one of Derbyshire’s most exclusive villages.
So, after visiting The Blue Bell I retraced my steps and found the Shazza’s baps were still advertising their wares…
(baps apparently…) (especially for Russ)
I had visited 224 – The Melbourne Inn DE73 8GJ back in February, which is next to the Chip and Pin and used to be known as the Viscount Lamb as recently as 2017.
Nonetheless, it is a boozer that is reinventing itself and ditching the image associated from its previous incarnation.
Licensee Ian Broomhed said “I wanted to completely strip it away. I worked here in the past and saw the potential that it had and, so far, we’ve heard very positive things from customers.
Over £100,000 was spent sprucing up the place (Ei pubco) and I can concur that it is far nicer in its current guise than it ever was as The Lamb.
I had a top notch pint of Bass for just over three quid…
and there was a good atmosphere with lots of blokes in groups celebrating the new opening and the fact it isn’t the Micropub next door and therefore are a different crowd.
Not worse or better…just different.
Melbourne has some surprisingly no nonsense pubs considering its standing in the Derbyshire Life magazine but The Melbourne Inn is a welcome addition as it keeps alive a building that was going under and adds another valuable option for a pint of Bass in Derbyshire!
So, just to clarify; if you want to see Humphrey and a good pint of Everards go the The Blue Bell whilst a good pint of Bass (but no dog) then head off to The Melbourne Inn.
You love your mongrel beers down there. Everards is currently, I believe, depending on which beer you try, bring brewed by several different contract brewers. The dog is so much nicer than the Humphrey that lives just down the road from me and for a minute I thought you’d found a Sam’s pub in your locality!
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I think there is a Sam’s in Derby…on my to do list 👍 everards always used to and I’ve no doubt will again brew their beer when new premises sorted
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Is it permanent…the Bass not the baps.
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I’ll have to revisit to check! Don’t add it to the list just yet
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“Humphrey came to my aid and was keen to serve me another pint and I have to say he was far chattier then some barstaff I have met in the past!”
LOL, that’s perfect! (thumbs up)
“(…big baps apparently…) (one for Russ)”
Obviously, somewhere along the line, I’ve made my preferences known. (blush) 🙂
“Over £100,000 was spent sprucing up the place”
Yowza.
“Not worse or better…just different.”
Variety is the spice of life so they say (well… apart from bap sizes of course!) 🙂
“So, just to clarify;”
Yep. There’s that variety again. Both good choices, it just depends on your mood and maybe company.
Cheers
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Humphrey was a star Russ not least because I managed to eke a post out of it!!
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