England, Day 3 & 4: Newcastle New, Newcastle Old

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vacation: newcastle upon tyne, england

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We took the train in from London to Newcastle Upon Tyne. A quick three hours that went through the very flat but quaint sheeplands and tiny towns of England. Amused to watch the different folks pour in and out of the train… Italian man massaging his rosary beads, Irish couple on vacation to Scotland.

Newcastle is the first sun we get since being in the UK. The town is a strange and fascinating blend of old and new. We shop in the hip new stores and do the “night scene” which is overrun with 16 to 18 year olds who pour in from the local university wearing the latest fashions for a night of peacocking and dancing to Lady Gaga. We also visit one of the oldest pubs in the town and one of the oldest restaurants in the entire UK, Blackfriars, which used to be a monastery.

This was also the first time in the trip we really took it easy. On our first day, we visited a local fish and chips shop in the mall before heading over to The Newcastle Arms for a beer. The Newcastle Arms was a winner of the CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) award for “best pub” for the past three years… well at least until 2009, when Bacchus took it away from them. The pub is as classic as it gets with tons of old locals with nicknames like “Stumbly Tom”.

It’s Easter Beerfest at The Newcastle Arms, and I try the “Sub-lime Blonde” which smells like citrus candy and tastes like baked bread. We had a long chat with Neil the owner about how the Brits prefer to have their beer not so cold and not so fizzy. He ends up giving us a bottle of his favorite beer to take home and try out. Tom and I are going to try and return the favor, since everyone looks at us funny when we try and convince them Michigan has good beer. We feel like we need to be ambassadors of our state’s fabulous microbrewery scene.

The evening is spent first at an amazing Ultravox show, where we are one of the youngest people there by a decade. I will need to write a whole blog separate about one of the reunion show of one of my favorite new wave artists, who haven’t lost their luster over the 20 plus years they’ve been apart.

Next it was off to try and visit Digital for their 80s music night. Little did I know that Newcastle had such a huge club scene. Practically every inch of the city is packed with clubs and teens, and the minute I saw hordes of skimpy dressed girls and slick haired boys flocking to Digital like busy buzzing bees… I knew we needed something a little tamer and older. I had a bartender who looked about half my age recommend me a few places to go. “Go to Florita’s Apartment, you’ll luuuv it” (which sounds adorable in a Geordie accent).

It wasn’t long before my distaste for the “youngness” off the town wore off. Even for us older folk, the night scene was pretty amazing. Florita’s Apartment was ultra hip on the inside, but also a comfy place to hang out and sip cocktails. Right next door at Revolution, they serve goat cheese pizza all night long, along with thirty different flavors of housemade vodka shots, and pitchers of gourmet mojitos you can order for the table. If either of these places existed in Ferndale or Royal Oak, they would be the “it” spot… and they are just two of hundreds here in Newcastle.

The second day we continue to take it easy. We walk around this giant shopping mall of a city, taking in the lovely Geordie accent, which sometimes can sound like another language all together. I am tempted to pack a little girl in my suitcase to take her home as she runs around saying “me mum is lovely, me mum smells like apple pie”.

Between the dozens of flashy shoe shops and bars there is Grainger’s Market, which feels like a step back in time. It’s all butchers and local cheese. It would feel a lot like Pike’s Market in Seattle, if it didn’t have the muted colors and antiquity of a pawn shop in a nowhere town. Old fashion candies for 45p a bag makes for good movie food as we move onto the hipper entertainment mall, The Gate, to see an appropriately British movie… The Boat That Rocked. Cheesy and delightful.

We had to make a stop at Bacchus before dinner to try out the pub that took away Newcastle Arms CAMRA award. The bartender and another local who must run The Boathouse in Wylam (another CAMRA pub) immediately start chatting with us about beer… but then about our countries, from politics to weather to movies. There is a friendly rivalry between the two pubs we are told as the bartender keeps bringing us samples of beers and ciders.

The rest of our time in Newcastle was spent at Blackfriars. I have a couple glasses of Alnwick Rum, which is not a normal drink for me, but it smells and tastes like a delicious mix of brown sugar and a fireplace. Blackfriars is all about local and sustainable food, without being the slightest bit pretentious. For them it is history and flavor, it’s honoring their local farmers… not a novelty or a political statement.

Tom has the best beer of the entire trip while he’s there: Durham Brewery’s St Cuthbert IPA. We have grassfed steak, duck, a goat cheese tartlet, and chocolate cake with mead ice cream. It’s all made with ingredients from farms you can see by looking at the map on your table. If this place was in any town in America, everything would cost two or three times the price.

We wandered (stumbled) back to our apartment to back up for the next day. Taking with us a strong desire to return to this fabulous country… full of proud but humble people who are willing to take time to talk with you at lengths about their love for cheese, beer, and food.

Tomorrow we go home…