A Tale Of Two Tynemills

I had an hour to kill in Nottingham today so decided to visit two pubs in the Tynemill chain. In my opinion Tynemill is the best pub chain in the country and they certainly have the awards to back up my opinion. Their pubs are pretty much centred in the East Midlands but there are a couple in Yorkshire. Personally I consider Northampton to be in the East Midlands so hurry up Tynemill and open one here.

The two pubs I went to were deliberately chosen from amongst the eight in Nottingham so that I could visit the one non-smoking pub in the chain, and then its nearest neighbour. So I started off in The Kean's Head which is a pretty small one roomed pub with bare floorboards. It has a choice of six handpumps, although only five were dispensing beer on my visit. There is a reasonable range of foreign beers both on draught and in bottle, although nothing which might be hard to find. The pub serves excellent food, being the only pub in Nottinghamshire to have a star listing in CAMRA's Good Pub Food Guide. It also warrants a listing in The Good Beer Guide. As a sign of things to come, it is completely non smoking. As has become apparent I am in favour of the ban, and in a pub this size I would imagine it could have easily gotten smoky, and enjoyment of the good food would have been very difficult. Although it was quiet on my visit, there is no evidence that banning smoking here has had a detrimental effect on takings.

After here I went to The Newshouse. This is a typical two roomed 1950s boozer, and is comfortable and welcoming. Eight real ales were on offer, with seven of them being part of a Summer beer season. Again the pub was fairly quiet and the main topic of conversation from those at the bar was the smoking ban. It's very apparent that everybody has different opinions, whether they be smokers or non smokers, and that's to be expected. However the concensus I am picking up from talking to people and listening to such conversations is that everybody will be complying, or at least reasonably minded people will be.

It's hard to compare and contrast a smoking and a non-smoking pub while both are quiet, and with 'S' day just five days away I won't have the chance to do so again, but that for me can only be a good thing.