Good god, where did the winter go? Ma and Pa have been so busy enjoying themselves and making Beeses gert brighter and better for you that they plum forgot to write! But they promise to give you their full and undivided attention during the forthcoming season, and here are some of the treats they’ve got for you...Actually, you’ll have to wait for that. First we need to talk about water, and lots of it, which has been the theme for this winter. Firstly, loads of the frozen stuff, as Ma and Pa took an excursion to the French Alps to go and visit Leah, Ma and Pa’s fragrant daughter and Tom, our chef for the last two years. They’ve both been working in Courchevel since December, a millionaire’s playground where a pint costs £7, a bowl of frites is £8, and the local Spar sells £5,000 bottles of champers! But it was good to catch up with Tom and Leah, even if Pa was forced to prise open his wallet with a regularity that brought on spontaneous bursts of Tourette’s Syndrome...still, he was able to take a little bit of Ingerland with him in the shape of Bath Ales’ and Butcombe’s marvellous micro-casks of ale, just the thing to warm a tourist’s heart!
But the snow fun didn’t end there, ooh no. No doubt you lot had fun messing about in the stuff that fell in Brizzle while making up excuses as to why you couldn’t make it into work because the dog ate your snow shoes. Or something.
However, when it melted, much of it found its way into the River Avon. Then for two days it rained like a cow peeing on a flat rock, and we had a high tide at the same time. Something had to give, and that something was our building works schedule. Holy inundation!Yep, two feet of water in the bar gave the indefatigable Mike Pope pause for thought, as he was part-way through laying our lush new slate floor. In fact, he paused for a couple of days, as that is how long it took for the waters to subside (you can see more pictures here and here). But Ma’s cunning plan of last winter to lay a concrete foundation with a gentle slope on it paid dividends, as the water left the same way it entered, taking most of the mud with it. There was still some cleaning up to do, but Mike and his son Tom cracked on with that and they had it all done inside a day, so Ma gave them both one of her patented sloppy kisses (although they insisted that she her keep her teeth in...).
Which all means we’re just about ready to open! That’s just as well, what with Easter bearing down on us like a giant white rabbit with a stone in his shoe carrying one too many Beeser salads. The doors swing open at midday on Friday, at which time we fully expect hordes of Ashton Press fans to lurch down the steps Shaun Of The Dead-style in order to slake the thirst they’ve been nurturing for six months. Yes, you can get it elsewhere, but you know it’s not the same, is it?
Ale fans are equally well catered for: Beeses opens as National Cask Ale Week draws to a close, but regular visitors will know that it’s cask ale week every week at Beeses – this weekend we’ll have ales from Bath Ales and the Butcombe Brewery, Yeovil Ales and the Bristol Beer Factory. And as it’s a long weekend, we hope to get through all of them!
But serving good food is equally important to Ma, and so you’ll be pleased to know that while our signature dishes such as the Beeser Salad and Pa Burger will still be available, we have some additions to the menu being served up by Matt, our new chef, and his able assistant Flick. We’re continuing to use exclusively local suppliers, so keeping the food miles down, and with the quality that we are getting from companies such as Taste and Butternut Deli, why go further?
We’ve loads of events on this year as well, and here is a brief run down:• the season gets off to a rockin’ start on Good Friday with Straight Shooter, who will be delivering a dose of classic rock on the riverbank
• there’s more music throughout the season, with the Raggle Taggle band playing on various Sundays and Bank Holidays, the first of which is Easter Monday. And we’ve got loads more throughout the rest of the season, including our open mic nights which are already a staple of Bristol’s singer/songwriter circuit. See our music page for more information on the bands that are appearing.
• did someone say beer festival? BeerFest09 will be our fourth festival, and the drill will be pretty much the same: a choice of local and not-so-local beers and ciders, and a great place in which to consume the lot. We were close to selling out last year, so get your tickets early (well, not too early ‘cos they’re not ready yet). The Bristol Ferry Boat Company will be running two trips from the city centre on the Saturday as well, so contact them for details.
• there will also be two comedy nights this year. On Friday 19 June we have a Pirate Cabaret featuring story, comedy, poetry, and music with piratitude. Pirate dress and talk essential. And on Thursday 30 July, we’ll be hosting Instant Wit, a quick-fire comedy improvisation show packed full of sketches, gags, songs, surreal situations, flying packets of ‘Instant Whip’ and prizes! The show is completely improvised and shaped around audience suggestions. Tickets will be on sale, ooh, really soon, if Pa Beese can work out which end of the printer plugs into the fax machine. Probably.
• Professor Beeses’ Quiz will be on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month, and last year we regularly had a house full. It’s usually a mixture of general knowledge, music and the Prof’s uniquely-themed rounds, so you’ll need your lateral thinking caps!
• and last, but very definitely not least, we have the return visit of Captain Barnacle. This was a bit of an experiment for us in 2008, so it was rather pleasing to see more than fifty children turn up, many of them in pirate costume, to be entertained for a full two hours. With enough jokes in there to keep the adults entertained as well, book early to ensure a place for your family!
OK, perhaps not such a brief rundown, but you can’t say you didn’t know about all this stuff. And we have run out of space to tell you about our new slate floor, the rather shiny new gents loos, the new decking, and the changes to the gardens. Apparently, you’re all spending more time at home this year, so you should be able to find time to pop down and see for yourself. Summer’s coming, but good or bad, Ma and Pa will be here to give you a little glow that you won't forget in a hurry.
Altogether now: Lipsmackinthirstquenchinalepourinburgerflippingoodvibinhardrockinsconesplittinjamspreadinsaladtossinpartylovin...Beeses!
Lurve
Ma and Pa Beese
Beeses Bar & Tea Gardens
www.beeses.co.uk
www.myspace.com/beeses
Tel: 0117 977 7412