The Sun Shines in Pickering

Our base for a couple of days at the south of the North York Moors was the market town of Pickering, where the Sun was the pick of the town's pubs. 
Here's what it looks like, along with a couple of other establishments that we visited..

Sun Inn (136 Westgate, Pickering, YO18 8BB - web)
We arrived to a friendly welcome at the Sun from both a local sat in the corner and the landlady who proceeded to serve us quickly with some lovely ales.
I snapped the picture of the empty room on arrival, but this filled quickly, with the pleasant back garden also proving popular thanks to the emergence of glorious evening sunshine
.

The real ale enthusiast who sat at the next table commended the landlady on having a fine choice of four beers which were all quite different from one another.
She thanked him and pointed out they'd actually got six cask ales and he'd missed the chocolate stout. 
And the Tetley's.
"Oh, I'm not counting that!" he admonished.

We settled down long enough to try a Half Moon Brewery 'Staycation' pale ale, a Helmsley Brewing 'Yorkshire Legend', and the  Nailmaker 'Choc Safari'.  All of which were quite wonderful.

Among'st a number of framed CAMRA awards on the wall was a memento of the 1975 Good Beer Guide in which the pub appeared...

The Sun is listed as being a "down to earth pub" serving Tetley Bitter.
The Lettered Board "haunt of market people, quarrymen and tourists" has not fared so well, closed and up for auction when we visited...

We found the pubs of Pickering remarkably popular with evening diners - some turned us away with a shake of the head, others displayed 'fully booked for food' signage out front.
Good for them, I guess.

The only place with room at the inn for us hungry souls was the Station Hotel, and I think they may have regretted giving us a table as they became a bit befuddled with their reservations a short while later.

Station Hotel (11 Park Street, Pickering, YO18 7AJ)
With a fine location opposite the North York Moors Railway station, the pub has three rooms in total, all with a modern touch to the decor.

Micro-dramas unfolded when a couple arrived and confused the staff by being part of a larger booking for four and a dog.
The fact that the other two and the dog hadn't yet arrived caused problems as another staff member tried to move them onto a table for two.  Finally the waitress took their drinks order and double-checked they were waiting for two more persons to arrive.
"And will there be anyone else joining you?"
"Yes, we're waiting for our two friends and a dog."
"And do you know what they'd like to drink?"
Er, nope!
How odd.

Retro phone to call in your Carling order

I can't even remember what I was drinking here.
We were just happy to have squeezed in and been fed and watered.

Moving on, at the top of Smiddy Hill is the Black Swan Inn...

Black Swan (18 Birdgate, Pickering, YO18 7AL - web)
First impressions weren't great: a 'pub closed' sign next to the door which turned out to be an out-of-date notice that they'd been shut on the eve of the Euro's final.

Confirming they were actually open, we headed inside where it's kitted out in modern decor, with coffee tables and leather sofas in the bar.
There's a little hint of an historic inn, but not a great deal of it's old character remains.

The final blow was a below-par pint of porter.

But then I discovered the beers came from the attached Breworks micro brewery.
The on-site brewery tempted me back for a second visit, this time sat outside under awnings in the rear courtyard, where giant wooden cable reels had been converted to tables.  The Simcoe pale ale was a well-served, enjoyable flavoursome pale ale, more than making up for the previous days dubious porter.

Al-fresco Simcoe pale ale

Which brings us to the final Pickering pub that we patronised...

Bay Horse (8 Market Place, Pickering, YO18 7AA)
This is one of those pubs which could have been completely different on another day.  
It looks superb - that grand old coaching inn frontage with the main entrance tucked away to the side.
But it was in a state of semi-chaos at the tail-end of food service, the staff relieved to hear we just wanted a drink.  We trekked through the surprising number of multi-level rooms as the pub stretches to the rear until emerging into the car park which doubled up as beer garden.
It wasn't the most characterful of spots to drink my Black Sheep Best Bitter.  But as I say, another time, settled in the more traditional front room, and I may have thought it was great.

Pickering proved to be a handy and pleasant place to stop, all the better once you reach the evening and the mass traffic jam that runs through the town dies down.
There were a couple more pubs that we didn't visit, but I'm pretty certain nothing is going to steal the Sun's crown as the best in town.

In the next post: a bit of York heritage pubbing.