Camden Brouhaha

Pub 11. Camden BrewDog, 10th December 2011.

Tanks a lot

After the old glory days of the Laurel Tree I'd heard so much about it's been a shame that this building has been empty for so long apart from such ill-judged ventures as a sushi place and an Italian (read: pizza) restuarant. Needless to say this part of Camden isn't short of trendy little eateries, so neither of them lasted long. And then along come BrewDog - whom I'm assuming you dear reader are already familiar with and the opinions people have about them. But any running pub is better than a closed pub, so well done them.
I had heard word that they were going to be opening tonight, so on my way home from a midday visit to Sainsbury's I strolled past laden with bulging oranginess to check out what time they might be opening. But hello! What's this? They looked open already - people standing outside. These people turned out to be bouncers, or doormen or customer liason operatives or whatever they call themselves. But bouncers at 12.30pm?? But very polite they were and the door was opened for me, also making the decision for me whether to go in or not.

Bar-ren

No place for a session!

BrewDog say of themselves "We are not cool. We are not pretentious. We just care. And we are your friends". ("Beer for punks"...?) I must say that my first impression was that the first 2 statements are quite wrong. The barmaid who was busy cleaning something at the bar did that thing whereby they think they can communicate "Hello there - what would you like to drink today?" just by looking at you. To me it appeared that she was just looking at me. So what am I supposed to do? But she was very nice and explained that she was quite capable of serving me as she can multi-task. She cared but I'm not sure if we're actually friends yet. I got myself a pint of Zeitgeist for £3.50, at 4.9% it was the lowest ABV on draft. Cripes, I'd only just had breakfast! This turned out to be a black lager, but very nice it was too.
Better say now if you're not aware, that all BrewDog's beers are keg. Craft indeed and although they say "No Tennents. No Carling. No Smirnoff." which is of course a good thing, I do like a hand-drawn pint. I reckon tha they're not doing their craft beers justice by serving them cold and fizzy. Another claim they make is "No Televisions" and I'm sure I heard music in there either. Two hurrahs! They're also careful it seems not to call their outlets "pubs", always "bars" - which I approve of, given the nature of the gaff. Despite the title of this weblog.
At this point I spotted two mates whom I'd not seen for ages, and had been attracted by the PR tank outside. Yup, park a tank outside a pub (oops - bar!) and it's guaranteed to attract at least two people. So I was chatting to them, and forgot to take anymore photos, so nipped back later - about 4pm to snap a couple more.

Upstairs

Downstairs

And I couldn't believe how busy it was! Very crowded, loud with mirthful chit-chat and the condensation was streaming down the windows. All very nice, and friendly. I'm sure it'll be popular with the young 'uns, but I like my ale served the ale-way. I think they'll do well, and I do hope so, but I myself won't be rushing back. I prefer a pub to a bar.

Toilet humour