The Stourbridge Lion, Stourbridge

This is the older (Jan 2005) of the two Stourbridge Spoons and is a long narrow shop conversion. It winds it's way through to the rear of the building where there is a second bar that seems to be in permanent operation. Note that it is a Lloyds No 1 and there was a leaflet advertising Karaoke on Wednesday nights. Each bar has five pumps with no doubling up. The rear bar had the two usual GK beers, Doom Bore and two ciders from the recent festival. At the front there was Sadler's Worcester Sorcerer (Available Soon), Daleside Square Rigger IPA, Shepherd Neame Bishop's Finger, Adnam's Enraptured American Ale and Bateman's XXXB. I went for the Daleside IPA (£1.99) which was an unremarkable beer in good condition. This was the first West Midland's Spoons I've been to that's cheaper than London's cheapest but the same as The Thomas Mildmay in Chelmsford. It's not that bad and I got served quicker here than over the road.

Called in yesterday on our way to Stourbridge beer festival for a quick one, and found we wanted longer as they had a good range of ales available, mainly from their current beer festival. We bought a couple from the front bar, then went to the back bar to find some more beers there we fancied, so ended up with 4 decent beers. Friendly staff and good service.

We thought this Spoons was quite small until we walked through the narrow corridor and on into a larger room at the rear. This section of the pub was a lot noisier as it was taken over by Stourbridge's younger set. We tried Warwickshire Brewery Lady Godiva and Darling Bud, both were ok.

Deceptively large ‘Spoons named after a 19th Century wine merchant for whom the building was purpose built in the early 1890’s. The building has been significantly altered including the removal of an entire storey that contained some eyecatching gables. Internally there is also little beyond the usual ‘Spoons Corporate identikit image and anything of interest appears to have long been consigned to the skip. The twin bars are divided by a short mirrored corridor and lights that look a bit Vegas kitsch. The rear bar appears to be the evening clubby area with prominent speakers and lighting. A central skylight (with a subdued blue glow in the evening) brings some much needed natural light to the rear section. It was fairly quiet on my visit but I would guess that the corridor divide would at least separate the cluuby noise from the more tranquil front bar. Each bar had 5 pumps but there were only 3 ales available throughoutthe pub, Ruddles, Abbots and the local Sadlers Red House which for ‘Spoons is a pretty poor selection especially since I found the Red House available in the other ‘Spoons barely 100 yards down the road. All in all I wasn’t too enamoured with this ‘Spoons given that it lacked any character and ale choice was poor although I can’t say whether this was just a bad day and all the other usual ‘Spoons necessities seemed to be present and correct. Personally, between the 2 ‘Spoons in town, the Chequers down the road would be my preference.

This is a Spoons place, housed in part of what was Bordeaux House and taking its name from the resident wine-seller. The building is a late Victorian corner brick and stone build, now sadly having traded its Gothic upper-storey for a simple balustrade. Some nice mouldings do however remain. There is a rear patio area. The interior has two open-plan areas. The front area is supported by big central columns and is in cream and wood, with some blue and patterned wallpapers, has a patterned carpet and a brick fire. It is mainly food tables, but there is a sofa area too. The walls have some history panels and old photos on. The back area has its own bar and is mainly in brick (some blue) with a wood floor. There were a lot of silent TVs with the tennis on and no music. We ate here, and it was fine. The service was OK and the clientele the usual Spoons mix, although it was quiet. Beer; usual tap stuff with Abbott and Ruddles, accompanied by Bombardier, Limstone Foundation Stone and Burton Bridge Golen Flame, which was decent. I am not a great fan of Spoons, but this was a decent enough visit. The one beer i ordered was on form and the uncomplicated food, edibile. I prefer it to the other Spoons place in Stourbridge.