The Angel Microbrewery on Stoney Street is the reincarnation of the Old Angel Pub which has been on this corner since the 1600’s. I will admit that I hadn’t been in here for at least 25 years, I used to come in in my polytechnic days when we were happy to slum it. We liked the rough and ready edges, the rock, and of course the legendary toilets.
When I came back to Nottingham it seemed that I had just grown away from that scene so we never seemed to come here anymore. It was like a distant memory.
So roll on to 2016 and the place closed to be reopened as a cleaner more sanitised angel with a yet to appear microbrewery attached. Maybe it has lost it’s edge? It seemed a bit too clean when I came in last week, and worst of all the toilets are really nice and pleasant! 🙂
Ok yes you may guess that I am taking the piss a little bit and also pandering to my friends who are already moaning that it ‘just isn’t the same’.
However, I will be honest and say I like it more now and I found myself sitting in the corner, drinking a pint of local beer from the local Black Iris brewery, and thinking “this is nice I might start coming here again”
Bit of the Menu
So I like a nice pint of local beer and I also like a nice bit of food so it was predictable that I would be reaching for the Menu to find something to eat.
The menu at the Angel microbrewery is split into two sides, one for the Herbivore and one for the Carnivore. It is probably the only place I have seen in the city where there is an equal split for the vegetarian with a matching dish for the meat eater. This should be no surprise though when you find that the new owner, Benjamin Rose, is also the owner of the excellent and highly rated vegetarian and vegan Alley Café on Cannon Court just off Long Row
I honestly did consider that maybe I should choose something from the herbivore side, just in case the chef had never seen meat before, but I didn’t I ordered a burger from the Carnivore side
Burger
So I ordered the ‘carnivore’ version of the Burger which was described on the menu as;
“A 6oz beef patty, made to our house recipe with back bacon, creamy blue cheese and homemade plum chutney.
Served with our organic hand cut chips, homemade burger relish and a side salad.”
It looked rustic, and it looked to be very much home made, this had the ‘Alley Café’ written all over it only with a touch of meat added. At this point I have to be honest, I am still not sure what I think about this burger. It was so kind of so ‘rough and ready’ that it felt unfinished, but it was tasty, well at least tasty in the interesting sense. Visually the burger patty is a mess, it looks like someone grabbed some meat, rolled it around a bit in their hands to form some kind of patty and bunged it on the grill. You know just how I do at home every weekend myself on my backyard barbeque.
It was kind of refreshing to get something that I might have been served at my mates house when he was being all like ‘look at me, I made my own burger’ but at the same time I was thinking is this for real? texturally I am still not sure, it was a bit chewy it must be the way they ground the meat. It had a good taste but also a weird taste, perhaps that was the combination of plum and blue cheese?
The best thing to do at this point is to just transpose what I wrote down as I ate this burger;
“Interesting! Flavour wise I am getting a little smoke, a little bit of gentle plum, it is almost perfume like, subtle but very different. In a good way?
I cant decide if this was good or the worst. It is tasty. The burger was so crumbly not sure if it was genius or just plain wrong.
The chips looked like the dirtiest greasiest things I have been served for ages BUT I actually really liked them.
They might be organic and hand cut but they also looked and tasted like they had come out of your Grandma’s chip pan on a heavy day.
Was it nice? well yeh it kind of was.
Summed up by someone else walking out ‘It tasted better than it looked’
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I am looking forward to see what they have on tap when the microbrewery arrives
and next time?
I will probably order the vegetarian version of the burger which sounded pretty good on the menu;
“The Caramelized Irish Field Mushroom Burger;
“A Homemade patty made from roasted mushroom sourced from ireland blended with fresh garlic, thyme, sea salt and black pepper, topped with our homemade basil pesto.
Served with organic handcut chips and a side salad”
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The Angel Microbrewery and Freehouse is located at 7 Stoney St, Nottingham NG1 1LG
You can also follow them on their Facebook page and on Twitter