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!!!

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’??

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.

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!!

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!!!

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 15^th 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’!!

Just after we launched Mobberley Fine Ales second brew…Whirly Bird…we were visited for lunch by Harry and Emily with their Harris Hawk!! The Harris’s Hawk or Harris Hawk, formerly known as the Bay-winged Hawk or Dusky Hawk, is a medium-large bird of prey which breeds from the south western United States south to Chile and central Argentina.

Birds are sometimes reported at large in Western Europe, especially Britain, but it is a popular species in falconry and these records almost certainly all refer to escapes from captivity.

John James Audubon gave this bird its English name in honour of his ornithological companion, financial supporter, and friend Edward Harris. The Harris Hawk is notable for its behaviour of hunting co-operatively in “packs”, consisting of family groups while most other raptors hunt alone.

Anyway we are regularly visited by pet dogs (even on their own), Peacocks(grrrrh) and we’ve had the cows well now we’ve had our very own Hawk….he must have heard about ‘Whirly Bird’ Bitter!!!

We would like to thank Mobberley Parish Council for the wonderful plaque presented to us for coming third in the ‘Open front Gardens’ for the commercial property section in Cheshires best kept village competition.

We have tried hard this year with the planting but still have room for improvement. But in our first year to come third is great and we are all very proud indeed!!

The plaque hangs proudly in our whisky snug above the fire place. We would like to thank the Parish Council and particularly Sarah Sherwood for her lovely letter in making this award.

We are honoured….roll on next summer!!