The smell of spring was in the air as Lloyd and the kitchen team delivered the goods once more with over 150 Italian dishes served through the week with wonderful Italian wines ‘shipped in ‘  by our award winning wine supplier Boutinot!!

The ‘winning’ dishes during the week were the fillet of beef Carpaccio and Franko’s (Smokehouse Franks) cured Proscuitto with mozzarella and honeyed figs and the Lamb Rump with Rosemary and the Veal Cutlets were the top main courses as the tiramisu and the Italian Cheeseboard were the favourite ‘afters’.

Customers did comment that they felt strange eating Italian food in the Bulls Head as we are now famous for our flavoursome, home cooked English favourites but like our ‘Robbie Burns night’ we like to branch out occasionally and celebrate food from further afield. So look out for our ‘Celebrate the bloody French week’ later in the year!!

A big thank you to Lloyd and the rest of the kitchen team for all their hard work during the week.

Shane and I have now shortlisted the three ‘Blonde’ Ales that will be featured to decide which one has the honour of becoming ‘The Blonde Bull bitter’ for this summer!!

Local micro- breweries were tested and challenged and we believe we have picked the best three for you, our customers, to decide the ‘champion’ blonde ale for the Bulls Head.

The Breweries represented remain secret until the final winner is chosen!!

The three ‘blondes’  will be ordered secretly during March and settled ready for the competition to start with vigour on MONDAY 28TH MARCH 2011 AT MIDDAYand the competition will last until the first ‘blonde’ sells out.

Customers can try all three beers via our miniature ‘sampling beer mugs’ and then choose their favourite and the votes will be added up and the winner declared via our website and publicly in the pub.

So if you fancy having a ‘Blonde moment’ come to the Bulls Head and give us your thoughts and ultimately your vote!! Here’s to the summer!!

We are delighted to announce that ‘Ma Mclaughlin’ an exceptional baker and frequent visitor to the Bulls Head has taken over the baking of the famous fruit cake that sits on our legendary cheeseboard!!

It is, apparently, a Yorkshire tradition to have a small piece of fruit cake with your choice of cheese (particularly a mature cheddar or of course a lovely slice of Wensleydale).

The two complement each other wonderfully. So a big thank you to Mary ‘senior’ for baking our fruit cake which was driven all the way from Donegal in Ireland just last week. We hope you enjoy it.

Our cheese boards are usually put together by David or James our chefs with great care and attention and have become a favourite with a glass of one of our fantastic ports.

Click here to discover the choices available. Remember that dessert wines are wonderful with cheese too particularly our Spanish Antique PX which we are happy to let you try before you definitely order one!!!

See you soon!!!

Here at the Bulls Head we will be saying farewell to our autumn and winter brew ‘1812 Overture’ and you our loyal customers will be given the chance to choose from three ‘blonde’ Ales brewed specially by local micro-breweries to become what I am sure will be another favourite ale for all our customers.

We will go live with the competition sometime in March so please keep an eye on the news page for confirmed dates for the ‘Bulls Head Summer Ale Competition’

On Tuesday 25th January Robbie Burns was celebrated here at the Bulls Head!!! Lloyd our chef produced a wonderful Venison Hotpot and the traditional Haggis with roasted tatties and neeps served with a smoked bacon and whisky sauce, as well as a Cock ‘a’ leekie soup and of course Cranachan with raspberries and oats…….. a sort of Scottish Mobberley Mess which was simply divine.

Nick our bartender and resident Scotsman turned up in his kilt and set about serving Haggis to the guests who joined us for the evening and was on hand to serve with, our compliments, a fine ‘wee dram’ of Glen Elgin 12 Year old Malt to those guests who wished to partake.

A great night was had by all and Nick even typed up the poem from Robbie Burns and delivered it personally to one or two of our regulars. Nick was rewarded with a wee dram himself and a slap up meal of haggis to remind him of home!!! So next year do join us for a wee dram and wonderful home cooked food.

Thanks Lloyd and Nick for helping to deliver a great night.

Nick serves the 12 year old Malt with our compliments

Nick delivers Robbie Burns famous poem personally

Nick is rewarded with his own dish of haggis and a wee dram

At the Bulls Head we are running a competition to find the funniest bar sketch from yester-year!! Here is the link to a sketch featuring Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry sent in by one of our customers….hilarious!! There is a meal for two on us to the value of £50 for the best bar sketch sent in to our website info@thebullsheadpub.co.uk over the next three months. I will screen the sketch and then it will be put on the news page. Then at the end of March 2011 we will choose the winner. If only we did this many bar snacks!!!! To view some other entrants click on our bar sketches page.

In the month of December over 1000 Mulled wines were sold as our ‘winter drinks’ were launched!! All the hot drinks have been well received but the classics are the most popular such as the Hot Toddy, Irish coffee and the Winter Pimms. The newly invented ‘Woolly Bully’ is proving a winner too. So if you are feeling cold you know where to come!! (Please click on drink then winter drinks for the list)

Talking of wine, we have introduced the very popular Spanish Sauvignon Blanc from the Rueda region to our wine list in January. Vina Mocen has been one of our most popular ‘shipped in’ wines and offers an alternative to the Chilean and New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs already on the list.

I have noticed that not many of our customers are going French with our Muscadet and I do believe maybe we got the pricing wrong!! So I have dropped the price from £18.50 to a more sensible £15.95 which is an excellent deal for lovers of this classic delicate French dry white which is made from the grape called ‘melon de Bourgogne’. This Burgundy grape was brought to the Loire Valley in the 17th Century. The grape is known for its robustness in the winter and especially against frosts. The grape nowadays is called Muscadet in the area and the wine is perfect with our homemade fish pie.

We have sold all our stock of Sancerre so while the coolness of winter is still in the air I have chosen not to replace it. We will next be focussing on our white and pink selection ready for spring/April.

The reds are having their moment as you would expect at this time of the year and I am delighted to see, at the top end of the list, the fantastic Valenciso Rioja doing so well. The red list has not changed for the winter as we firmly believe all tastes and price budgets are catered for. The Macia Batle Mallorcan wine which has been a regular ‘ship in’ over the last couple of months has been a very popular ‘not on the list’ wine and is a favourite to be included on the spring list as it suits the summer as well as the winter.

VAT changes have NOT been passed on to our customers I am pleased to say. Price points are sensitive and we do not want to breach these barriers. Please click on drink then wine to review the list and please advise us of any wines you feel we should be doing.

Just to let everyone know that the forthcoming events at the Bulls Head have been changed somewhat so please go to our events page for confirmation of new timings. The next event up is Robbie Burns food and whisky evening which will feature specials from north of the border as well as a ‘wee dram’ of your choice from the range of Malts from the whisky ‘bible’.

Then there is Valentine’s Day on Monday 14th February 2011. Fancy dinner in the wonderful atmosphere that is the Bulls Head by candlelight!!?? Enough said.

Remember too that every other Sunday our resident band ‘Smoooth’ (yes with three o’s) will be playing music from the ‘great American songbook’ between 2pm and 5pm. Stewart and Laurie AKA ‘Smoooth’ have enjoyed rave reviews since they took up the Sunday slot .

Lord Ted’s quiz is booked for every OTHER Thursday in January, February and March  starting no earlier than 9pm.

If you’re not keen on quizzes either come early on the Thursday the quiz is on or come on the Thursdays there is no quiz.

If you are Lord Ted fan and/or  love quizzes then the best advice is to get here early so you may  eat, drink and then do the quiz!!

‘Made in Italy’ week is being put back to replace Ale and Game week commencing on 21st February through to 27th February inclusive. We felt that Game and Ale week would, because of seasonality, be better this coming Autumn 2011.

Pie and Ale week will be still on National Pie week starting 7th March 2011 and should not be missed!!!

Please keep an eye on the ‘events’ page for updates as and when they happen.

Having studied the sales statistics for the Month of December 2010, I am delighted to announce that our cask ales made up 80% of our draught beer sales with the rest…20% being the ‘fizzy stuff’ and Guinness!! You may remember back in the early days soon after we opened  we reported a split of 55% Cask ale versus 45% Fizzy. Well things have moved on greatly, 80% is a huge number and really shows what our customers want.

I am delighted with this news as there is nothing typifies a pub more than fresh cask ale!! We would like to thank all our customers for supporting our ‘famous five’ pumps which celebrate and recognise local Cheshire Ales from some fantastic micro-breweries within a 30 mile radius of the pub. Bulls Head bitter remains the best seller with Mobberley Wobbly Ale a close second. Our winter ale 1812 Overture is being enjoyed by many of you too. Come and enjoy a pint or two and let us know which beers you like the most!!

As I write this update to everyone my head is somewhat sore!!!

Anyway a very Happy New Year to all our customers and our team!!!

A massive thanks to all our guests who joined in the New Year festivities at the pub last night and to our team who did a brilliant job!! A few are caught on camera here…. sorry they are a little blurred!!! A great night was had by all and as the bell tolled to bring in 2011 Shane, our Landlord, delivered a great firework display (thanks to John for supplying the fireworks…very kind!!) then as the fizz and whiskies flowed a small bowl of freshly made chicken curry was served on the house to the party attendees. It was great to see everyone enjoy themselves in their local village pub!!! As we are a relatively new pub (we have now been open 7 months) every day is a new day and we learn from our experiences. New Year’s Eve at the Bulls Head will become, over the years ahead,  a great traditional celebration at ‘the pub’.

Here’s to 2011 !!