The Old Joint Stock, 4 Temple Row West, Birmingham
Jul 5 2007
By Graham Young, Birmingham Mail
IF there's any justice, the universal smoking ban imposed on July 1 will give characterful pubs like this a whole new lease of life in their bid to compete with identikit coffee shops.
Unless there has been a compelling work reason to go into a pub at lunchtime, I've generally avoided them like the plague - not for me the misery of reeking like an old ashtray for the rest of the day.
Now that pubs are smoke free, I was in this extraordinary watering hole like a shot.
How wonderful to be able to see the former banking hall's amazing decor without peering through the nicotine equivalent of a peasouper. And, shock horror, to be able to taste the food!
I plumped for the gammon and leek pie with a wholegrain mustard sauce. It came hiding well beneath an impressively-towering puff pastry shell and alongside fluffy, sleeper-style chips and green salad.
My colleague Adie was delighted that his meatless, sweet potato, puff pastry pie came with goats cheese, wilted spinach and field mushrooms, bound in a creamy sauce. His chips sat next to vegetables which were all equally quick to disappear.
Both pies could have been a touch more substantial but, having been alarmed that our meals had arrived within five minutes at least they were perfectly edible.
Only my non-dressed salad was a wilting disappointment.
Being in a former CAMRA award-winning pub meant a wide choice of ales. My London Price (4.1 per cent) was delicious, while Adie's Chis-wick (3.5 per cent) lived up to its billing of having 'flowery and citrus hop notes'.
THE BILL:Gammon and leak pie £7.45, Sweet potato and goat's cheese pie £6.95, 1pt London Pride £2.60, 1pt Chiswick £2.35. Total: £19.35.
