Dog & Duck, N21

Visited 03/06/25 Cask was TT LL from two handpumps, the other two handpumps being non dispensing. Keg offering was Neck Oil, Carlsberg, Guinness, original SB, Fosters, Moretti, Cruz, Stella. This is a quite small local on a residential street. The bar counter is on the left-hand side of the venue with tall stool seating along the length of the bar counter. The venue is carpeted with a tartan pattern, a bench along the wall opposite the bar counter and regular tables, with a fire grate in the rear right-hand corner. There is a drinking ledge in the rear left-hand corner with some tall stools to sit at. The walls have some framed pictures of local scenes. Out the back there is a small, paved beer garden, including some covered seating. Not one of the leading lights but a pleasant neighbourhood venue.

Present by the 1860s, this pub is situated at the less affluent end of Hoppers Road. The interior is pleasantly traditional and unpretentious, with a tartan carpet, sympathetic furniture, quality bar array and pot shelf with brown grained wainscoting to burgundy walls; décor comprised old photos of the area. What few customers were in at the time of my Wednesday 9.00pm visit were indeed older and very blokey and inexplicably there was an omnipresent strong smell of sweaty feet; the largely unwatched Villa v. Freiburg match played at volume. Cap’n N21 will be pleased to learn that there’s now TTL – the pub’s a Member of the Timothy Taylor Champion Club – thereafter two unused pumps. The TTL was very good, £3.10 a half, served by a friendly barmaid; thereafter there was your typical fizzocracy and Guinness. Not bad and a decent surviving example of a traditional pub, but the ale choice is limited, foot odour abundant and the loud sport made conversation difficult; I would still take the King’s Head over this place.

Facebook page of Dog & Duck - www.facebook.com

Official site of Dog & Duck - www.thedogandduckwinchmorehill.co.uk

Facebook page of Dog & Duck - www.facebook.com

Official site of Dog & Duck - www.thedogandduckwinchmorehill.co.uk

Sadly the long term Irish Guvnor passed away in late 2022 and the pub hasn’t been the same since. The managers brought in since then have had no interest in real ale or maintaining the community feel the Dog and Duck was famous for. The four hand pumps stand empty on the bar and Beavertown Neck Oil is the closest thing you will find nowadays. The weekly quiz nights are long gone and key sporting events do not attract the crowds they used to under the former landlord. It’s all a bit sad really. The pub interior still remains a thing of beauty and it’s worth popping in to see that if in the area, just don’t expect a real ale.

This is a compact, traditional local's boozer down a side street around five or so minutes walk from Palmers Green station. You enter via a fine porch that has retained a lot of excellent etched glasswork, including an impressive 'Public Bar' pane. You emerge into a smart, carpeted room with a fresh feel to it thanks to some nicely painted walls which suggest a tasteful recent refurbishment that has avoided tarnishing the pub's character. The servery is along the left hand wall and has a simple dark wood counter, tidy wood panelled canopy and a very impressive etched glass bar back which is arguably the pub's stand out feature. Chairs and low stools serve small round tables under some modern etched glass front windows, whilst down the right hand wall, some sturdy deep benches with more low stools extend almost to the rear, supplanted by some regular tables and chairs to the back of the room, around a pleasant fireplace. The decor is marred a little by some of that dreadful bookcase-effect wallpaper, but this has thankfully been used sparingly, as it threatens to spoil what is otherwise a well presented room, enhanced by nice old black and white photos and portraits of various famous Irish playwrights and poets. Some visitors may be put off by three large TV screens which were showing a mixture of rugby and golf on my visit, with the commentary on, but this was clearly well suited to the almost entirely male clientele, whose general chatter easily drowned out the audio. To the rear, there is a very colourful rear garden, which i can imagine would be a nice place to relax in the summer months and there were plenty of fresh flowers dotted around the pub too, adding a dash of colour and fragrance. The bar was manned by a very friendly barmaid and a proper old-school landlord in shirt and tie, who popped over to say hello to me and seemed to have a great rapport with his locals. He had three ales available from four handpulls - Youngs Ordinary, Greene King IPA and Taylor Landlord. My pint of Landlord was spot-on and although the majority of punters seemed to be on the lager, there was still a fair bit of throughput on the handpulls, which is always an encouraging sign. I really liked this place, which felt like the sort of proper pub it's increasing hard to find these days. The pub clearly won't suit everyone - it's a very male-led environment with an emphasis on sports, but as a male who enjoys sports, this wasn't an issue for me and I felt very comfortable here, chatting to the locals and enjoying some well kept beer.

This is a fairly simple single-room pub, but at some stage it must have had two rooms. The only doorway in use now is on the right, unusually with two doors, both with what looks like original Victorian glazing - one to the Saloon Bar and the other to the Saloon. Possibly one had been re-sited from the unused doorway on the left? There's little inside of any heritage value, but I did spot a couple of glazed panels in the bar back that looked to be of Victorian vintage. This is another comfortable carpeted pub with no tall tables/tall stools - just a bit banquette seating plus normal tables and chairs. There was a gas (imitation coal) fire alight, which was welcome on a cold day. We could see a garden at the back but the weather wasn't really appropriate for sitting outside (unless you're a smoker, when I guess the need for nicotine trumps a bit of personal discomfort). There were four ales on in here - GK IPA; Timothy Taylor Landlord; Young's Bitter; and Wells' A Good Stuffing. Three pint of landlord, and one of the Wells came to £16, so average £4 a pint. They didn't do food on the Wednesday lunchtime we were in. This is another decent little pub in this area. I preferred the Orange Tree, but this one is in the same general area of ranking.

Old school locals boozer with an exclusively male clientele of tradesmen and oldsters at half four on a Tuesday afternoon. Interior is J shaped with dark blue carpet and trim. Furniture is traditional and the stool and bench fabrics are also…blue. In fact, I was one of the few things that wasn’t. On one wall are some interesting old pictures of the bar from the sepia tinged era. To the rear is a small but perfectly formed rear patio with plenty of flora and fauna plus tree, all very nice. The inside was also noticeably spick and span. A TV was mutely showing retro football to an audience of nobody, which seemed out of place. The impressive dark wood varnished bar holds four pumps, all operational on my visit from National and Regional breweries: GK IPA, Youngs Ordinary, Tim Taylor Landlord and Adnams Ghost Ship. After rousing the barmaid from her texting via a passive aggressive rattling of my change, I ended up with an enjoyable half of Ghost Ship at a couple of quid which I guess is the going rate in such high-end area. Plenty of mention elsewhere of a friendly welcome but I have to say that I didn’t get that impression. However if you like well-maintained and traditional boozers with well-kept ale, this one is worth bothering an All Zones Travelcard for. 7.5