The Ritz (JD Wetherspoon), Wallsend

My Saturday evening visit to this Wetherspoon's was my first ever visit to Wallsend. The town doesn't seem to have much going for it. Located in a former cinema, you can no longer access the building through the front doors. So it's a long walk along the road, past a Burger King and through a car park to the entrance at the rear. Inside, it was heaving with all tables taken. Social distancing was taking place. But it was still very busy. It's clearly the place for a night out in Wallsend. Despite the crowds, staff were good enough to find me a small table not far from the bar. That was lucky as the app failed to work for me yet again and I was soon able to order my Old Rosie from one of the passing staff. Ruddles Best & Sharp's Doom Bar are the regular ales. In addition, there were 3 guest ales - Theakston Old Peculier, Adnams Ghost Ship & Kansas Avenue Dodge City Delta. Ciders were Weston's Old Rosie & Gwynt y Ddraig Black Dragon.

This is a new Spoons dating from Spring 2015 and as is obvious from the name was once a cinema. Strangely the front foyer area of it has been turned into a semi open patio and conservatory area. The bar is further back but is just a square low ceilinged room that could be part of any building and is rather gloomy. There are some strange lampshades and odd lighting generally. The bar has two sets of six hand pumps but the beer selection was poor with no less than five available soon and the JDW Trio Of Doom with the GK beers doubled up. This left just Caledonian Ithaca Nut Brown and Hadrian Tyneside Blonde. I went for the Hadrian beer which was well kept but unexciting. The limited beer selection let this one down badly.