BASHFUL TESS

We were chatting about our four legged friend visitors to the Bulls Head the other day and from ‘Tess’, Tony’s beautiful dog that visits five days a week to Nuala our local Irish Terrier who pops down on her own for a wee drink and a biscuit we have had many a hound through the door of our pub!!

In fact, I exaggerate not, when I say we have calculated that nearly 5000 pet dogs have visited the Bulls Head garden or ‘Whisky Snug’ since we opened the doors over two and a half years ago. We give away 4 boxes of dog biscuits a week!!! That’s over 500 boxes since we opened!!!

So to mark the 200th birthday of our pub in the first week of December the owners of what we calculate to be the 5000th dog to come through our doors will be rewarded with a secret prize!!!

This is not a ‘shaggy dog story’ it is acknowledgment that pet dogs like pubs too!!! So will your pooch do it? See you from Monday 3rd December!!

WHO WILL BE THE 5000TH DOG TO VISIT OUR PUB

NUALA

Blue a Crufts Champ

Our famous fresh homecooked pie week went  down really well last week!  Literally!!! I guess that’s why we celebrate it twice a year!!!

The next one is now in March 2013. As everyone knows we only use antique mixed chairs here at the Bulls and it would seem that more chairs broke in Pie Week than in the last couple of years!!

Could it be the wonderful steak and Mobberley ale Pie that pushed the weight up a little?

Don’t worry we will reinforce the chairs before March!!

After a lot of recipe writing, cooking and best of all…tasting we have launched our Autumn season menu. Such delights for starters are

Lloyds lightly spiced beetroot soup finished with Ty Gwyn cider and crème fraiche or Pan fried Duck livers finished with warm chickory and fig salad or the wonderful Crispy ‘kipper’ hash with Clonakilty black pudding and a fried hens egg or Cheshire’s very own Kidderton Ash Goats Cheese ‘cakes’ with salad leaves, port dressing and pickled walnuts.

For main courses we have added a chicken dish for all those lovers of our ‘Parmesan Chicken’ that used to be on the menu. This is similar but with an Autumn mushroom sauce and we now use Old Winchester Cheese which is like an English Parmesan but better!! Delicious!! Then we are adding Pan fried Cheshire Lamb Chops with creamy spring onion mash, creamed cabbage and smoked bacon finished with pan juices and our favourite Pork chops are back too. We are doing Organic Pork Sausages from the Rhug estate with creamy mash, shallot gravy and red cabbage for Autumn and for vegetarians a Butternut squash hash with spiced carrot chutney, beetroot leaf and sorrel salad with spiced squash seeds.

Then we have Lloyds slow cooked Mobberley ‘tongue in cheek’ Ox ‘stew for two’ served with creamy mashed potato and red cabbage or of course you can have this for one or for fish lovers the hake is back this time Pan roasted fillet of hake wrapped in English Air dried ham with parsley mash, roasted artichokes and creamed cabbage. The fish can be cooked without ham for non-meat eaters.

Puddings have changed slightly with the Mobberley Mess taking on an Autumn taste as well as Golden Syrup Sponge with lemon curd and custard and Creamy Rice Pudding with whisky soaked sultanas and fresh raspberry jam being added to warm you up as winter approaches!!

The Cheese board has changed to feature purely British Cheeses and is now available for one as well as to share.

Lloyd and Ben are now working on the festive specials that will be available in December leading up to Christmas!!

Please look out for our foodie events between now and Christmas with ‘Seafood and wine week’ starting on Thursday 25th October and our Cheshire Game week starting on Thursday 22nd November.

Owner Tim is travelling Ireland searching for Whiskey that is unique to the Emerald Isle that he can bring back for this Autumns whiskey tasting evening and of course for guests of the Bulls Head to enjoy next to the fire with our Cheese Board!!

The Whiskeys will be on the bar this Sunday!!

The pictures show the worlds oldest Distillery… Kilbeggan in the county of West Meath the home of Lockes Whiskey as well as of course Kilbeggan itself!!

Two special whiskeys were acquired here!!

Midleton was next on the tour and what a lovely town this was just to the east of Cork and the home of some of the best whiskeys in the world let alone Ireland. Midleton Whiskey and Jamesons whiskey dominate here but we manged to bring back a rather nice bottle of Yellow Spot Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey! Inspired by the original Yellow Spot and last bottled in the 1950s, Yellow Spot is the rare taste of a bonder’s style Single Pot Still Irish whiskey. Rather than being simply a finished whiskey, Yellow Spot is special in that it contains single pot still whiskey that has been matured for a full 12 year period in three oak cask types: American bourbon barrels, Spanish sherry butts and uniquely, Spanish Malaga casks. Bottled at 46% ABV, the influence of the Malaga cask brings an exotic sweet note to the whiskey making it a truly delightful taste experience.

Just to let you know we also brought back to the bar at the Bulls Head are Greenore 8 Year Old an Irish Single Grain Whiskey which is a gold medal-winner at the International Wine & Spirits Competition, this unique concoction is a 100% Single Grain Irish whiskey, from the multi-award-winning Cooley distillery in Dundalk and The Kilbeggan Distillery Reserve Malt, the latest addition to the Kilbeggan family of fine whiskeys, is produced from the oldest pot still in the world which dates back to 1830. After 53 years this is the first ‘official’ Kilbeggan to be released. Amazing. Historic. And plain good whiskey.

We were pleased to read a recent interview with Alistair Brownlee where he stated: ‘I’ll eat all sorts of food like pies, Yorkshire puddings, fish and chips – all of that’ as part of his diet toward fuelling his amazing stamina.

Well Alistair come on down to the Bulls Head as our legendary Steak and Ale Pie is waiting for you!!! I suppose if you run 35 hours a week at pace you can eat what you like!!

Anyone wanting to enjoy a pie and keep fit can cycle down to the Bulls Head as our cycle park is now completely finished with the sign in place. A permanent plaque will go up too once it has been officially opened!!!

Big congratulations to Victoria Pendleton for winning silver on Tuesday. The Bulls Head cheered her on via our iPad from the office of the Bulls Head. We think Vicky was robbed but there you go!! A superb effort and what a way to retire!!! Well done you have set the bar (forgive the pun) for so many people!!!!

Now then, last week we got a call from Sky News wondering if we had a telly in the pub!!! As any visitor to the Bulls Head would know we don’t have a telly. Apparently Sky news wanted to film us cheering on another visitor to the Bulls Head, the one and only Sir Chris Hoy!!! I guess now we wish we had bought a telly!!!

Anyway well done Chris…………. 6 gold medals…..wow!! There are few words that can sum up that achievement. A true hero!!

Thank goodness we have built our Bike Park in honour of the Olympic Cycling Team. Thanks to Rick and Paul our superb locals and log suppliers www.caddishome.co.uk…they came up with the most superb bespoke bike park after an idea from Tim and it is a privilege to dedicate it to the efforts of Britain’s excellent cyclists. It is for all cyclist to enjoy and there is more to come as we build the second at our other pub the Cholmondley Arms near Malpas.

We are very proud to be British right now, the country needed this lift and with the sailing in Weymouth near our other pub the Red Lion we have truly felt the spirit of the games. Here’s to the final days hoping for a few more golds!!!

Victoria Pendleton who enjoys a Sunday lunch here at the Bulls Head occasionally has won gold in the women’s Keirin in the Velodrome in London and secures Britain’s third track cycling gold in 24 hours.

Guo Shuang took silver with Lee Wai Sze of Hong Kong in bronze. Pendleton’s rival, Australia’s world champion, Anna Mears was fifth.

31-year-old Victoria will be up against Mears again when she begins the defence of her individual sprint title on Sunday we will have our fingers (well everything really) crossed and how appropriate it is on a Sunday….come on Victoria get to the final!!!

Congratulations to Victoria from all the team at the Bulls Head, Mobberley as she made the final yippee!!!!!!!!!!! We don’t have a TV at the Bulls Head so an iPad is used to secretly watch the races while looking after our loyal customers!! Tuesday will be no different so come on Victoria do your best you deserve it.

It has been a summer of activity here at the Bulls Head particularly on the exterior of the pub where a new garden wall has been restored, a fantastic bike park has been built for cycling enthusiasts, the specially made Bulls Head Village news board has been erected and now following a recent visit from the Cheshire Farmers ‘drag hunt pub ride’, Sophie, our very own horse riding enthusiast, decided that the Bulls Head should get its act together and become horse friendly!!! We have won many plaudits for our dog friendliness but horse friendliness is a new one on me.

So Sophie set out and acquired Horse snacks that sit on the bar near the dog snacks in the snug and ‘lead’ ropes that are now available as well as water of course in a special horsey bucket!!! We have areas to tie up horses too. As you will see from the picture the new bike park isn’t really the ideal place to park your horse!!!

So if you are out in the country on your horse and you both need refreshment then think no further than the Bulls Head!!!

Tim Bird
Proprieter

NOT EVERY HORSE IS PARKED CORRECTLY

HORSE SNACKS SIT BY THE DOGGIE SNACKS

HORSES AND RIDERS GATHER AT THE BULLS HEAD

LEAD-ROPES-AND-WATER-AVAILABLE