The Earlham, Norwich

Steve of N21 left this review about The Earlham

Bit of a strange one this. An impressive grey building from the road which looks more like someone’s imposing Georgian mansion than a pub and if it wasn’t for the name of the pub on the front and a very pleasant outside garden area to the left I could have easily walked passed thinking it was a private dwelling.
Apparently this one has gone through a lot of name changes and different guises in the past. It’s been formerly known as The School House, The Fountain and the Pickwick and in the last couple of years has reverted back to another previously used name of the Earlham and given another internal makeover. Apparently 10 years ago as the Fountain it was a well known real ale pub and had a tap room where there were several barrels on stillage. Well not any more. This is much more like a modern trendy bar with red neon signage offering Gins and cocktails alongside a modern food menu, much more akin to the Alchemist and Botanist chains than a traditional pub. And I don’t think they had CAMRA members in mind when they installed the large “your vibe attracts your tribe” large neon sign as there were no real ales that I could see but several keg font units with a few interesting modern craft options and then more in cans in the fridges. I ducked the Brew York Rhubarbara Steisand and The Goodness Brewing Yes Pale Ale and went for a half of the Vocation Heart and Soul IPA and took it out to the one key selling point for me on a glorious Norfolk sunny afternoon, which was the excellent outside garden space. This has some interesting large wood carvings and a not so interesting large plastic colourful dinosaur which looked like a hangover from a previous charity event.
I later found out that this is a sister pub to The Black Lion just down the road, that I went to next and found it to be a more traditional pub, much more to my liking, so I will be leaving this one to the students if I am ever back visiting the Catholic Cathedral just up the road.

On 4^th May 2023 - no rating submitted
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