Traditional Bloody Mary for our “200th Anniversary”

‘Bloody Marys’ are all the ‘rage’ at the Bulls Head!!

We have seen a real resurgence in the popularity of ‘Virgin’ Mary’s and ‘Bloody Mary’s’ since we opened in May 2010, particularly on a Sunday!!!

Here at the Bulls Head we are definitely famous for them as we now mix two types firstly the Vodka based ‘Bloody Mary’ with the vodka of your choice, a ‘big Tom’ tomato juice, ice and garnished with lemon and celery and a secret ingredient or two and then it is over to you to hit the Tabasco and Worcestershire sauce!! This was Tim and Shane’s initial recipe conjured up for the opening of the new Bulls Head back in May 2010. At £4.25 a glass for this ‘Bloody’ version it has to be done!!!

Secondly as part of the Bulls Heads 200th anniversary year celebrations in 2012 Tim has gone back to the roots of the ‘Bloody Mary’ and was influenced by a Sherry and Food matching evening he attended. So now you can also order the traditional ‘Bloody Mary’ made with Chilled Manzanilla Sherry (instead of vodka) and a hint of homemade horseradish!!!

So enjoy a Bulls Bloody Mary, perfect as a ‘pick me up’ this summer!!

Bloody good!!

Spring is upon us so join the club and have fun this year!!!

3p Club and Goodfellas Club.

As a ‘petrol head’ and enthusiastic Porsche fan it suddenly occurred to Tim, when a wonderful pale blue Porsche ‘Speedster’ parked outside our Bulls Head pub, that he should form a ‘special club’ here at the Bulls Head in Mobberley. The club is known as the 3p Club and in its first year gained 18 members!!

3p stands for ‘Pub, Porsche and Pint’ Club and to be a member of this ‘elite’ and fun club all you have to do is…………

A) Own a Porsche or borrow or hire one regularly!!
B) Park your proud Porsche (as seen in the photos) outside the Bulls Head
C) Take a photo of your proud Porsche and email the photo to Tim at our email address info@thebullsheadpub.com with your name and the name of your Porsche (if you have one). It’s as simple as that!!

Your Porsche picture will then be proudly presented on the website and when Tim has 50 Porsche members he will be drawing a lucky winner for an excellent ‘Drive experience event’.

We will be organising special drinks evenings and food evenings throughout the year for Club Members. As well as the annual 3p Club Treasure Hunt every July, the Goodfellas in August with the ‘head to head’ grand car club final between the two clubs every September!!.

There is no joining fee for the 3p Club. We will from time to time ask for small donations for local charities at our club events.

Each member on joining will receive a 3p Mug and a free pint of Bulls Head Bitter (or glass of wine) served to them proudly in the pub!! Mugs will be presented when you visit to claim your pint or glass of wine or at the special events we arrange.

So come and enjoy the quirky Porsche Club now.

I know immediately this unique club alienates other car enthusiasts!!! So our landlord Ben is ‘President’ of our rival club (Ben has an old ‘Merc’) which is called ‘The Goodfellas Car Club’.

To join this club you mustn’t own a Porsche! You must be exceptionally proud of your vehicle/mode of transport and send a picture of it parked outside the Bulls Head (the same as the Porsche pictures). Ben will decide who is ‘worthy’ of joining The ‘Goodfellas’ Car Club and this club too will enjoy social events throughout the year.

The aim of both clubs over time will be to have fun, enjoy our great village pub, create friendly rivalry between the clubs and help raise money for charity.

So it’s over to you….our present and future customers… we look forward to your car photos. Each year Tim will be betting Ben £100 for a nominated charity that he will have more members than Ben in a year. Original landlord, Shane Bushell won ‘year one’ with 27 members to Tim’s 18…but Tim won in 2011 with 18 members gained (weirdly exactly the same as last year!!!) to Shane’s 16 members!!! Shane has now retired and handed the Goodfellas car club over to new landlord, Ben.

So come on…….. ‘Grab the Bull by the horns’…..and join the stampede to be in the club(s)!!!

Click here to view 3p Club

Click here to view Goodfellas Club

All the Best

Ben and Tim at the Bulls Head.

‘Winter in to Spring’ Menu arrives!!!

The new menu has arrived!! Lloyd and the team have been working very hard on one or two new dishes for the ‘winter in to Spring’ menu.

One new winter warming starter is the ‘Little Seafood Crockpot of by-catch fish, prawns and mussels in a warm creamy dill and white wine sauce, served with a little glass of chilled Manzanilla Sherry’.

We have introduced an ‘On Toast’ section featuring our very popular Wild Mushrooms Pan Fried with white wine, cream and shallots but adding two other starters………..’Pan Fried Chicken Livers with a port wine sauce’ and ‘Homemade Baked Beans with grilled Delamere goats cheese’ (a posh cheesey beans on toast)

On the main courses ‘Lloyds Slow Cooked ‘Stew for Two’ (or for one) served with creamy mashed potatoes’ will be a winner and Lloyd is kicking off with his slow cooked game stew first!! For vegetarians we have introduced two main meals which I am sure none vegetarians will enjoy very much too one is ‘Herbed Portobello Mushrooms grilled and served with slow cooked pearl barley and caramelized artichokes’ and secondly ‘Delamere Goats Cheese Hash with a spiced apple sauce and winter salad’.

We are varying our sausages also by moving to ‘Seasonal Sausage from the Rhug Estate with mash, shallot gravy, and red cabbage’ this way we can offer you different flavours of sausage over the year. Finally a Pan Fried Cod served on Cannellini beans sautéed with butter and thyme, cherry tomatoes and chives’ is the fish dish replacing the Hake and it is truly delicious!!

The cheeseboard will now vary from time to time as Lloyd looks to Cheshire for most of the Cheeses on the board. He has added a ‘Homemade Lemon Tart served with cream’ to the puddings and a gorgeous chilled Rose Port has been added to the vast list of Ports on our list and is very much a new dessert wine alternative.

See you all on Thursday 2nd February when the menu is launched

Robbie Burns would have been proud!!!

Och the noo!!

Haggis, a wee dram, our own flying Scotsman Nick, kilts and Laird Ted of Lochness and his monster Quiz!!! You couldn’t write it if you tried!! Twenty four Haggis meals were served as well as the normal menu with Lloyds wonderful whisky sauce being a real highlight. Nick (pictured with the haggis in a pan waiting to go out) donned the Black Watch Kilt and handed out the wee drams that were included with the Haggis meal. Then enter Lord….No…..Laird Ted of Lochness (pictured with winning quiz team captain Steve) to ask the Scottish questions!!! What a great night !!! Thanks to everyone who came out to enjoy it!!

A Brilliant New Year’s Eve at the Bulls Head.

Oh what a night…… late December back in 2011!!! The busiest day since we opened way back in May 2010!! Thank you so much to everyone for the perfect New Year’s eve party in the pub!! Food was eaten and the drinks flowed as the music cranked up a little to the sounds of Chesney Hawkes, ABBA, TheBeegees and many more.

As Midnight struck Shane our landlord and pyrotechnics expert set off his fireworks to magnanimous applause and appreciation!!! So good were they (the fireworks) that the Olympics Committee are considering using Shane for the
opening of London 2012!! The rest of the evening was spent drinking and eating our delicious curry until carriages took people off at 1.30am or so!!!

We even had our own ‘Cinderella’ who left in such a hurry from the ‘Bull’ (ball….get it?) She left her rather high heeled shoes outside our Pub!!! Very close to an empty bottle of Champagne!!! (see pic). Tim our owner and general ‘Prince Charming’ found the shoes the next morning whilst tidying the pub for News Years Day lunch!!! The shoes were taken to the office for safe keeping in the hope that ‘Cinders’ could be found!!

As the story goes there was no need to go around Mobberley to find Cinderella as at 5pm on New Year’s day ‘Cinders’ arrived to pick up her ‘heels’ from the good King Shane as Prince Charming had gone home to sleep!!!

A happy ending as always……………….Happy New Year to all our
customers!!!

Ted is the ‘King’ of Jen’s famous Christmas Curry Night.

It is a pre-Christmas Tradition for our landlady Jen and our Head Chef Lloyd to get together and create two or three great spicy curry dishes for Jens ‘Christmas Curry Night’.  This year Jens South African lamb curry was the best seller as every seat was taken both for food, drink and of course Lord Teds ‘Three Kings’ quiz.

Ted decided that one king must have been Elvis and ‘rock and rolled up’ dressed as the man himself!!! Please see the scary
photos below!! Well done Ted for having the guts to squeeze into the suit!!! (if you will pardon the pun).

There were a lot of laughs and fun and that’s really what it is all about!!

Ted then returned for his ‘post-Christmas’ quiz dressed as Santa Claus. Teds next dates are Wednesday 11th January and then on Robbie Burns night with the Haggis, tatties and neeps………’ Lord Ted of Lochness’ presents his ‘monster quiz’!!

Both nights start from 9pm. A wee dram on us with every haggis meal!!

Look forward to seeing everyone and thanks for attending the curry night. Some customers did ask us to do the event quarterly so let us know how you feel about a potential ‘Quarterly Quiz and Curry night’??

 


Christmas Day is celebrated by so many at the Bulls Head!!!

Happy Christmas!! The now legendary Christmas day at the Bulls Head was bigger than ever as off duty Bulls Head team members rubbed shoulders with locals and customers from further afield (thanks to the folks that travelled from the other side of Manchester!) As loyal customers walked, cycled and drove to their village pub!!

Our very own Sophie arrived by horse (pictured with owner Mary) and enjoyed a glass of Prosecco before heading home for the turkey!!

Talking of food…… all our chefs (except Steve who was at home cooking) enjoyed (maybe too much) a day off together as the kitchen closed for Christmas day to give them a rest!!!  The picture says it all!!!

Our Christmas Day ales went down too well on the day with such varieties as Christmas Stocking and Christmas Pud by Coach house brewery in Warrington and ‘Looks like Rain dear’ from Storm Brewery in Macclesfield. The badges pictured give you the idea.

Thanks again for your support!!! Look forward to seeing everyone again over the festive period.

 


Bulls Head “Highly Commended at National MA 250 Awards”

We are delighted to announce to all our customers that the Bulls Head was awarded a “Highly Commended” (effectively second place) in the final of The UK’s ‘Best New Site’ Award at the National MA 250 Awards held in London in November 2011. This marks a hat trick for the Bulls Head having won ‘Best Turnaround Pub in the Northwest’ in September and the CAMRA Award for supporting local micro-breweries also in September. On top of this our entry in to the ‘Good Beer Guide’ in our first full year for 2012 was a proud moment.

The recognition is gratefully received and reflects the hard work of every member from within our pub team…….. Chefs, Kitchen Porters, Cleaners, the Front of house team and our management team have really been fantastic!!

It is all down to them and of course the exceptionally loyal support of all our customers everywhere.

Here’s to 2012!! Another year of opportunity!!

Winter drinks are here!!!!!

As the December chill sweeps in the fires are lit and the ‘winter drinks’ board is outside the Bulls Head again. As you can see Soph and Tom are well equipped hat wise as they show off the warming drinks available.

Toms Toddy this December has to be our lovely Mulled Wine but Sophie has added her own twist on Toms Toddy with ‘Soph’s suggested Sip’ which for the month of December is our Winter Pimms with warm apple juice and cinnamon stick!!!

So get to the Bulls Head and drink to winter by the fires!!

Also over 67 whiskies await you too this Christmas!!

See you soon!!!

 

 

New wine list arrives for winter!!!!

Our new wine list has just ‘gone live’ but the work towards this list took place last month……

Here at the Bulls Head on Tuesday 15th November 2011 we held our very first ‘winter red’ wine tasting evening. We were joined by local wine enthusiasts/customers and some of our team in search of great reds for our winter wine list. The evening was hosted by our favourite wine merchant Ed Cross from Boutinot!!

Ed spent 3 years making wine in France, New Zealand & Australia but remarkably came home to England because he “preferred the nightlife of Manchester”!!!

Ed guided us through the evening, drawing on his experiences to prepare us for the hard work of choosing our new reds. Firstly we had a brief chat on how wine is made, followed by how to Taste Wine – Ed says it’s like having a cup of tea!!! Apparently it’s all about the smell, the sight and the taste. Then we matched food with the wine.

We selected five different ‘Bulls head to Ed’ taste offs!!

  • A Pouring Rioja or a Pouring Cabernet? – We’ve been asked for both, but our tasters got to choose the winner!! Both were served with our little sausages from the Cheshire smokehouse. The Cabernet Sauvignon won hands down and is now on our list by the glass and the bottle!!
  • Barolo ‘lookalike’ v a Medoc ‘lookalike’ – Nebbiolo d’Alba, Poderi Colla v Tabali Cabernet Reserva served with a tiny Pigeon stew. The Tabali won easily with great blackcurrant flavour and a deep finish, a truly great wine which stays on the list!!
  • A Mallorcan Double Bill – Is Macia Batle’s Reserva better than its Crianza? Each were served with a good mouthful of our famous steak and ale pie. The Reserva Privado won this one and many selected this as the best wine of the night!! Certainly one of the best wines from the shores of Mallorca!!
  • Poor man’s Amarone or the Real Thing? – Ripasso v Amarone from the same producer was served with 28 day aged Sirloin steak. While the unbelievable Amorone won this challenge, it was decided that the Ripasso should stay too. The Amorone was the overall winner at the tasting….a stunner!!
  • P is for Dessert wine – PX from Spain or Pink Port a new release from our friends at Wiese & Krohn, served with our popular cheese board and a custard dessert. Both the chilled pink port and the PX are now featured on our dessert wines section….the pink port is certainly one for the girls!!
  • Also good news for our wine loving customers is that we have moved our Reserva Pinot Noir to a wine served by the glass as well as the bottle!!

 

The list also shows a half bottle of Champagne which again is a request from several customers and now we have a ‘Reserve’ Red wine section on the list for three Reds which are simply ‘top dollar’ but memorable.

We have also reduced our fizz with our Kiki Sparkling Sauvignon Blanc now only £22 a bottle and the Pink Lallier Champagne down to £35 a bottle….ready for the celebratory season. To view the new wine list click on ‘drinks’ then ‘wine’.

Thanks to all our customers who took part in the tasting.

If there are any customers who are interested in wine tasting here at the Bulls Head email and let us know then we can include you in the ‘Spring whites and Pinks tastings email invitation’!!