Yates - ex-Crafty Sow / Yard.

Lukes

A few posts under my belt
The Crafty Sow opened its doors on Friday after a refurb. We do a large range of craft beers and looking to support the local cask Brewers. If there is any product you would like us to get on draught, please let us know and providing we can get it we will.
Cheers guys.
 

Frontal

Well-Known Forumite
Supporting local brewers ? I might actually have to go and give it a try again sometime.
 

Rowley Reg

Well-Known Forumite
Tried it Saturday and to be fair, it's a good refurb, which has smartened the place up.

They had Slater's Premium & Rye, plus Doom Bar - and good to see them supporting local brews. The food menu seems better, and although we didn't eat, the meals coming out looked pretty good. Customer service looks to be greatly improved, with genuine desire to do something other than serve the drinks and plonk the food down - saw a guy checking back on food quality and chatting with the customers, always a good sign.

I'm pondering which market they are trying to hit - I've always classed this place as a 21's and under sports bar - and it still has around 12 screens, so no escaping Sky Sports. Most of the customers on our visit seemed to be the younger lager-drinkers, although there were a few family groups as well, so will be interesting to see if the change of name and addition of cask ales attracts a wider market.

They are up against pretty tough competition - Two Wetherspoons, The Sun and Market Vaults now picking-up with their burger-tastic menu (excellent, actually), and competing against The Post House for the younger weekend crowd.

Only observation we had is that it's difficult to manage the loud lager boys (and, wow, was he loud) against the food buyers, who probably want a bit more quiet.

But hey, good luck to them, and good to see a change of approach
 

Rowley Reg

Well-Known Forumite
Blimey, seems you can't post anything here unless you explain everything detail by detail - of course Doom Bar is a Cornish beer, as most ale drinkers know. The post referred to the 2 Slater's Beers "They had Slater's Premium & Rye, plus Doom Bar - and good to see them supporting local brews" obviously needs amended to "They had Slater's Premium & Rye, plus Doom Bar (Doom Bar is of course a Cornish Beer) - and good to see them supporting local brews (which are Slater's beers from Stafford) - would this have satisfied you ?

Yes, Doom Bar (from Cornwall, not from Stafford) is named after a stretch of sand in Cornwall (Not Stafford)

Christ almighty - haven't you got anything better to do than pick holes in posts? - Get a life mate!
 

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
Any chance of a cider that's seen an actual apple? Nice to see real ales and good food but if you're selling strongbow and bulmers I can't see myself visiting.
 

John Marwood

I ♥ cryptic crosswords
Blimey, seems you can't post anything here unless you explain everything detail by detail - of course Doom Bar is a Cornish beer, as most ale drinkers know. The post referred to the 2 Slater's Beers "They had Slater's Premium & Rye, plus Doom Bar - and good to see them supporting local brews" obviously needs amended to "They had Slater's Premium & Rye, plus Doom Bar (Doom Bar is of course a Cornish Beer) - and good to see them supporting local brews (which are Slater's beers from Stafford) - would this have satisfied you ?

Yes, Doom Bar (from Cornwall, not from Stafford) is named after a stretch of sand in Cornwall (Not Stafford)

Christ almighty - haven't you got anything better to do than pick holes in posts? - Get a life mate!

Thanks Dad
 

Noah

Well-Known Forumite
Blimey, seems you can't post anything here unless you explain everything detail by detail - of course Doom Bar is a Cornish beer, as most ale drinkers know. The post referred to the 2 Slater's Beers "They had Slater's Premium & Rye, plus Doom Bar - and good to see them supporting local brews" obviously needs amended to "They had Slater's Premium & Rye, plus Doom Bar (Doom Bar is of course a Cornish Beer) - and good to see them supporting local brews (which are Slater's beers from Stafford) - would this have satisfied you ?

Yes, Doom Bar (from Cornwall, not from Stafford) is named after a stretch of sand in Cornwall (Not Stafford)

Christ almighty - haven't you got anything better to do than pick holes in posts? - Get a life mate!

You failed to explain that the beers are produced from water, barley malt, other cereal derivatives, flavoured with hops & fermented with yeast; they undergo secondary fermentation in the cask and are served without the application of extraneous gas. You might also have explained that Doom Bar is a reef composed of marine sand and that 60% of the sand is derived from marine shells. You really have to spell it out for some of the readers. And what was the beer like?
 

Rowley Reg

Well-Known Forumite
They also had Rekorderlig Cider - not sure how authentic this is as not really a cider drinker, plus Brew Dog punk IPA on draught - and wow that is different - very very hoppy. So they are trying to be different.

And yes, I know neither of these are brewed in Stafford (yawn)

Plenty of real ciders coming soon at the Beer Festival at the Bless (oops, must correct myself, I mean Blessed William Howard school) July 31st I think

That's 2015 I forgot to clarify (oops again)
 

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
Yeah, rekorderlig is an alcopop really. I don't expect bag in a box stuff, but a few bottles of westons/thatchers wouldn't go amiss.

You can get real ales anywhere, but rather depressingly the best cider pub in the town centre is spoons. I tend to drink in the greyhound myself as it's on the way home :)
 

Entropy

Well-Known Forumite
Sampled the southern fried Chicken wrap on Saturday, had it just as it came and was surprisingly quite nice. Just the right amount if you're not after anything heavy.

provided with a small side salad with a herb and oil dressing that was really nice as well.

From watching the other examples of food appearing from the kitchen it certainly looks as if the standards have been significantly improved from when it was the Yard.

The staff were good as well, couldn't fault service at all. Just hope the high standard are kept up and don't slip.

:pint::bravo:
 

Rowley Reg

Well-Known Forumite
Tried a quick meal on Monday - only a humble scampi and chips - but was presented very well and was again impressed by the customer service - checking back to see if everything was OK (which it was, perfectly) - and even asked if I they could get me another drink whilst I was munching away. I have to say, 10/10 for effort. A small but varied-age group in, and the Sky Sports TV turned down to minimum volume wasn't oppressive.

Putting in perspective, this is pub grub presented and served very well - they aren't after Michelin Stars but it's a very welcome competitor to Spoons and competition is healthy - someone has done a good job on the staff training and I sense a step-change for the better.

Any chain pub is going to be any easy target for the doubters - all I'd say is give it an open-minded try and see what you think

Good to see they are continuing with the 2 Slater's beers as well
 

Wormella

Well-Known Forumite
We had a mummy lunch there and they were great, very quiet on an early Sunday lunch time, lots of space for pushchairs and they came and played with the kids, helped us bring our drink to the table and preempted when we might need the key for the baby change. They also gave us all balloons =D

The Mac and Cheese Burger and a Peanut Butter Brittle Brownie were also top notch
 
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