The Strand, Whitehaven

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

Will Larter left this review about The Strand

On a wet and windy day in the Lake District my idea of climbing Scafell Pike was obviously a non-starter, so I drove into Whitehaven to pick up some essentials, and one or two non-essentials while I was about it. With a bit of time to spare on my parking ticket I fancied a cup of coffee, and remembered seeing this place when walking to the shopping area. There was a notice on the pavement advertising coffee and cake, and I thought there's no way they can force me to have cake, so I'll just have the coffee. Of course, it turns out it's a pub, but early Tuesday afternoon I wasn't the only one drinking coffee.

The bar counter is to the right on entering, with eight or more keg taps but no real ale. Some cake was displayed under those glass covers that allow temptation while keeping the cake from going stale. The lass behind the bar failed to notice me come in, probably because I wasn't in a group of three or four chattering about the rain, but her manager prompted her and she started to make coffee. I went and sat at a table in the higher part of the interior, up about three steps and the coffee was brought to me when ready. The lower part of the bar has high tables and high chairs, whereas the upper part has lower tables and normal chairs. I speculated as to whether this meant that the table tops were thus at the same height in both parts, but concluded that the three steps up amounted to more than the difference between the table types. By this time my coffee cup was empty and it was time to go. I returned my cup to the bar, where the manager took my payment and wished me as pleasant a day as was possible. "Is it always like this in Whitehaven?", I asked. She gave it five seconds and a thoughtful look - "Yep!"

On 4^th July 2022 - rating: 6
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