The Ship - gives me a reason to love Portishead

An afternoon spent on the Somerset coast, in which we find a fine bar billiards table, dining with a view, and a big picture of sailors being lured to the rocks by sirens.
With no further ado, here's the three current Good Beer Guide pubs of Portishead...

Firstly, on the western outskirts of town, we made our way to The Ship.
A seventies building with a big car park, on a corner of a genteel housing estate from the same era, I'd never have guessed from outside that The Ship was gonna be a bit of a gem.
But it is.

The Ship (310 Down Road, Portishead, BS20 8JT)
The Beer Guide mentions that landlord Vic Long is a font of local knowledge.  And sure enough, we'd only been inside for 30 seconds and he was chatting about the wrong turns you can make when approaching on the footpath from Clevedon.
Vic has been landlord for a staggering 48 years, having built and opened the pub in 1973.

Beers available were Otter Ale, Doom Bar or Bass, the latter served from a Bass barrel dispenser in the corner of the bar.

The Ship has a couple of separate areas either side of a central staircase, all with dark wood paneled walls and bench seating, chairs and stools in various hues of red.

It's a cracking traditional pub (with traditional opening hours to match).
Proper beers, bar billiards, beer mats in a bucket and palm trees in the garden!
Great stuff!

We left the Ship and headed closer to the centre of Portishead, where our next destination was the Windmill.

The pub, the Bristol Channel and Wales are all visible in the picture, but somehow it just looks like I've started a new hobby of car park photography...

The Windmill (58 Nore Road, Portishead, BS20 6JZ - web)

The remains of the windmill itself are just to the side of the pub and date back to the 19th century.  The building has also been a club house for the golf course next door and Home Guard headquarters during the second world war.
But now it's busy welcoming gentlefolk diners.

We went through a pretty thorough routine at the 'check-in' point: have you booked?..have you checked in on the app?..have you experienced any symptoms of Covid-19?..do you have any food allergies?
Rules about stairs followed - walk up those, down those, those are two way but whatever you do don't pass anyone midway on them or disaster will ensue.
Phew!

Having not pre-booked, and the pub being busy, we figured we'd get stuck in a gloomy corner somewhere.  So it was a surprise to get taken to a table by the sweeping picture window with it's marvelous views over the Severn Estuary.
We probably benefited from a phantom pub table-booker, who made the reservation then decided not to bother showing up. 

A table with a view.

Our lunch in the Windmill was accompanied by a Butcombe Best Bitter.
As usual with Fullers, not the widest choice, but Butcombe made a nice change from Pride and it was in decent condition and went down well.

For a more varied beer choice, our next destination was a modern beer cafe.
Just over a mile away, we followed the coastline, as closely as possible, clambering over the rocky shore for the final leg as we reached the modern marina.

The Siren's Calling (The Marina, Newfoundland Way, Portishead, BS20 7PT - web)
According to Trip Advisor, this is the #1 nightlife spot in Portishead. 
It's pretty rare that I go anywhere which is classed as #1 nightlife.
That said, there are only two places in Portishead classed as nightlife on Trip Advisor, with the second being the lovely looking Black Horse pub who are probably wondering how they've ended up in this category.

The deep-water docks originally served a power station and chemical plant, now long-gone and replaced by tall modern developments surrounding a marina full of leisure boats.
Among'st the handful of coffee shops and eateries at the side of the marina, the Siren's Calling first opened it's doors in 2018.

They offered a good choice of beers, with several hand-pumps, a tap selection and a bottle fridge full of craft and classic worldwide beers.
I went for the relatively pedestrian choice of the Bristol Beer Factory 'Fortitude', an enjoyable, easy-drinking amber ale.

Sirens

Dammit, I should have sought out a sour beer so I could have used 'Sour Times' as my Portishead blog-post title.
I'm sure I could have done better. 
Prop Up the Bar crap post titles continue uninterrupted!