Malt Shovel, Carnforth

Pub SignMan left this review about Malt Shovel

This is a typical village pub with quite a large layout, spread across two notionally separate rooms. You enter into the carpeted main bar area with a modern laminate flooring walkway running from the entrance to the bar on the opposite wall. Nice banquette seating is fixed under the bay windows to the front, and plenty of regular tables and chairs fill the rest of the room, including to the left, where it extends to the rear alongside the L-shaped servery. The bar has a solid, dark wood counter and nice matching bar back with some tuck-shop style sweets available from jars along with the usual spirits and snacks you'd expect to see. An exposed stone wall to the left has a lit stove that was pumping out some good heat and a large pull down screen here, would normally be used for showing live sport, although it remained off during the course of this visit. One notable theme came to light when I spotted a stuffed bird of prey to one side, which complimented a collection of bird of prey pictures on the walls, along with more traditional pub paintings and decor elsewhere. Some nice seats to the right, were aranged next to some sort of tank, possibly for fish, a snake or who knows what - I didn't see anything in there myself and wasn't curious enough to properly inspect it. Steps lead down to a good sized seating area ro the right, with lots of tables and chairs with a great old photo of the pub on the end wall, plus a TV showing a live football fixture with the sound on. A door to the rear left looked like it led out to a beer garden, but I didn't go out to explore.
On the bar, Pennine Merry Cherry Christmas and Sleigh Bells Ring, Wainwright Gold and Cross Bay The IPA were on handpull and the latter turned out to be a decent drop. The bar manager was a Scouse fellow, drafted in to help the owners, and he turned out to be very chatty and a good laugh - I can imagine some good evenings are had in here under his watch. Unfortunately, I was the only customer on a Monday afternoon, in sharp contrast to a busy Old School Brewery taproom just up the road.
I quite liked this place but it felt like it was at a bit of a crossroads, clearly struggling a bit to find the right customer base and perhaps lacking the focus of somewhere like the aforementioned taproom. I enjoyed my brief visit, made all the more memorable by the presence of the manager, who is of course only a temporary asset of the pub, but whether I'd feel the same if I were to return a few months later is hard to say. Either way, I hope they can get the place working for them again, as it could be a great focal point for the village.

Date of visit - 15th January 2024

On 7^th April 2024 - rating: 6
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