Little By Little - Kent Micropub Tour Part 2

The previous post left us four pubs into our micro pub explorations of North Kent, ready to see what else we could find between Herne Bay and Margate.
Our next stop, in Birchington-on-Sea, was at the Wheel...

The Wheel Alehouse (60 Station Road, Birchington-on-Sea, CT7 9RA)
This alehouse is nautically themed - ship's wheel in pride of place on the wall, nautical lamps and other bits 'n' bobs dotted around.
A giant flag covering the ceiling and a TV looked rather out of place by the window, set up for the world cup, which I trust no-one was watching as I parked myself on a high stool right in front of it.

On the beer board were two casks (McCanns 'Janet Street Porter' or Isla Vale 'Comet') and three kegs, plus a tempting selection of cans and bottles on a shelf at the side of the room.

What really made this pub was the cheery and chatty locals, who seemed quite entertained by this party of tourists from Oxfordshire invading their previously peaceful micro pub. 
They suggested we add a visit to the Old Bay Alehouse, just down the road, to our itinerary.  So - not wanted to shun a local recommendation - that's where we went to next... 

Old Bay Alehouse (137 Minnis Road, Birchington-on-Sea, CT7 9NS)
This micro opened on the site of an old general store and post office in 2017, a modern L-shaped room with beer barrels stored in a temperature controlled room behind the bar.

Two beers on offer came from opposite ends of the country: Harbour 'Hollow Days' and Swannay 'Scarpa Special'.  But I stuck with the dark local stuff - a Gadds 'Dog Bolter', bringing back memories (or lack of 'em) of youthful days in Firkin brewpubs.

The place was decorated with tropical fruits and flowery garlands, the lady serving us wearing a grass skirt.  It transpired it was her birthday - "Hawaii 5-0", she explained, "it seemed a good idea at the time", she added, not looking fully immersed into party-mode just yet.

We just had time for one more micro before we hit Margate on a Saturday evening. 
Bussing it a short way to Westgate-on-Sea, the Bake & Alehouse was hidden along an alleyway alongside the Carlton cinema...

Bake & Alehouse (21 St Mildred's Road, Westgate-on-Sea, CT8 8RE - web)
This was a contender for most satisfying 'tick' of the weekend, due to the limited opening hours to scupper the midweek visitor...

The Bake & Alehouse is currently using the following opening hours -

Friday (12:00-9:30ish)
Saturday (12:00-9:00ish)
Sunday (12:00-4:00ish)

'ish' added to closing times to potentially scupper evening visitors too.

The Bake & Alehouse was a bustling little place, pretty much full once we'd all piled in.  It's from this point on that things get a little hazy...I have no idea what I ordered from the gaffer who came around taking our drinks orders, there being no bar counter in this pub.

The lack of note-taking is coupled with my poor night-time photography, as demonstrated here as we arrived at Margate's Ales of the Unexpected, after checking into our hotel for the evening.

Ales of the Unexpected (105 Canterbury Road, Margate, CT9 5AX)
This micro, a 10-minute walk from the harbour, just past the train station, is located in a row of shops and was once the local fishmonger.  The front room had some fine bench seating at long tables, assorted pub clutter on a high shelf around the wall, old pump clips on display, and a nice line in world atlas wallpaper.
The bar was located in the back section with beers served straight from the barrel.

The local crowds are out in force for the visit of Prop Up the Bar.

With members of the group electing to take a break from micros and head out to restaurants, it was just five of us who were foolhardy intrepid enough to hatch a plan to travel a few miles to an outlying beer guide tick.

We caught the Loop bus from Margate to suburban Princess Margaret Avenue in Cliftonville, making the short walk to a micro in the middle of a 1960's housing estate.

Have a look at Retired Martin's blog to see what the pub looks like in daylight and the brilliant laughing barrel pub sign which I missed entirely.  Then shake your head in despair at yet more dodgy after-dark photography from me...

The Laughing Barrel (35a Summerfield Road, Cliftonville, CT9 3EZ)
This was once a pretty standard red-brick 60's estate pub called the Northdown, adjacent to a small shopping precinct.  When the pub closed, half of it was converted to a pharmacy, with another section of the ground floor reopening as a micropub in 2018.
There was something I really liked about the Laughing Barrel - maybe just the fact that creating a micro in part of the building had kept a supposedly unviable large estate pub alive.  And the locals seemed a happy bunch.

When one of us mentioned the chippy next door, the chaps at the bar told us it was closing soon so we'd better pop round now & we were welcome to bring our food back to eat in the pub.  So we left Mrs PropUptheBar guarding sofas and drinks, heading to the Palm Bay Fish Bar on a mission.

Beers on offer at the Laughing Barrel came from Wantsum, Parkway, Koomor and North Down breweries, with seven boxed ciders also on offer.
As I'd made the foolhardy switch from beer to cider earlier, I picked the fine Dudda's Tun 'Bone Dry'.

I planned to stop at the Banks Ale House on the way back to town, but this turned out to well and truly shut with the lights off just after 9pm on a Saturday evening.

Instead, we ended up back in Margate in Fez.
We visited this quirkily decorated micro back in 2019 on a Sunday lunchtime.  What a contrast to see it in full swing on Saturday evening - busy, lively and great fun, with a soundtrack of rock 'n' roll standards and classic hits eliciting singalongs and dancing.

Reports that I was involved in some of that singing and dancing are surely fake news!
Although dusting off the cobwebs next morning and trying to remember how much cider I'd drunk, it could just be possible.
Next up, our bus takes us to Sandwich and Canterbury.
Cheers 🍺