Sunday 9th December

We will be closed on Sunday 9th December due to our Christmas outing to Manchester.

If you would like to join us on the trip there are still limited places available. We leave at 10 30 am due back around 9 00pm. Cost for the coach is £20pp.

A Shindig, Food and Trips

Hop fields at St Bernardus Brewery, Watou, Belgium

Well we've had a really good summer and we now have a busy autumn and winter to tell you about. We had a really good short break in Belgium in June and highly recommend the guest house at St Bernardus brewery in Belgium, delicious beer and a wonderful breakfast. But enough of that, what's happening at The Snug?

This Friday night (21st Sept 5 00pm until 9 00pm) we welcome back Yardies with their delicious Jamaican street food. If the weather is bad don't worry, there will be extra cover outside for when The Snug fills up.

On Sunday we launch our Snug Beer Club. From 12 00pm until 1 00pm on the third Sunday each month, entrance will be by extra  special can or bottle. The aim of the club is to sample the delights of beers that you cannot find in local shops, supermarkets or pubs so we don't want anybody turning up with a can of Boddies or Carlsberg! There is no charge but we will all be sampling the beers we bring along, so it's not a slug it back session it's more of a beer tasting hour. The Snug will then open as usual on a Sunday at 1 00pm. If you're wondering about where to find those special beers come along on Sunday and find out more.

On Saturday November 3rd we welcome back Thai Kitchen and will be hosting our first ever 'Gin and Rum Shindig'. We usually have around 12 gins and a couple of rums on offer but on November 3rd we will be adding 10 rums and 10 gins to the list, all drinks we have never had in before and hopefully ones that are new to you too. So there will be around 34 spirits to enjoy during the shindig and top notch Thai street food to complement them.

On Sunday 14 October we are planning an afternoon at our good friend Andrew's pub, the Barlick Tap in Barnoldswick. The Tap stocks a fantastic range of Belgian and other European beers as well as top quality cask and keg beers. The provisional details are departing The Snug at 11 00am, due in Barnoldswick around 12 15pm. We will leave Barnoldswick at 2 30pm due back at The Snug around 3 45pm for a last couple of drinks. We will need to finalise the coach by the beginning of October so need firm bookings and a £10 deposit by the 30th September. Cost will be between £15 and £20pp depending on figures. We don't make a profit on trips we only need to cover costs so the more that join us the cheaper it becomes.

Finally our ever popular Manchester Christmas trip is pencilled in for Sunday 9th December. This is just an early warning, it's far too early to be booking Christmas things yet.

Whether on a trip or just popping in for a drink we hope to see you all soon.

Jamaican, Thai And A Trip

Well that was a fantastic weekend. On Saturday we were packed out for the wonderful Thai Kitchen from opening to closing and enjoyed some of Amporn's delicious Thai street food while we worked. Of course several casks of tasty beer were consumed with the food. Amporn and Eric will be back with us on Saturday June 9th.

Yesterday a coachload of us went on our first Snug outing of the year and what a great time we had. Our first stop was Hawkshead Brewery where our friends kindly laid on a brewery tour and there was the usual delicious ale and food.

Our next stop was Cartmel where we spent several happy hours enjoying the spring sunshine with copious amounts of cheese, wine and port at Unsworth's Yard, not to mention some lovely beers from Peter's Unsworth's Yard brewery.

Our final visit was to our friends at Fell and the Factory Tap at Kendal. As well as some lovely beers we enjoyed the usual warm hospitality with Ronnie and Les laying on a lovely barbecue for our hungry travellers at the Factory Tap.

All in all it was a quality trip and we would both like to thank all who joined our booze cruise and a special thank you to all the places we visited for their warm welcome and hospitality.

On Saturday June 2nd we will be welcoming Yardies Jamaican Street Food to The Snug. As many of you know we are very fond of our Caribbean food, offering jerk chicken whenever we can for our Jacob's Joins, so we are really excited about Yardies. I've dropped a huge hint for them to do ackee and saltfish, one of my favourites, but let's see what delicacies they offer us on the day. We will be receiving a menu nearer the time and will keep you updated.

That's all for now folks, take care and hope to see you soon.

All Systems Go

We've had a great few weeks since reopening and we are so pleased with how things are going.  Thank you to everybody.

We are now playing catch up with some beers we were hoping to put on before we closed finally making an appearance. I met the lads from Farmyard Ales in Cockerham around August last year but didn't get their beers on before we closed, that will be changing soon. Likewise we will soon be welcoming Pomona Island beers, brewed in the shadow of Old Trafford football ground and Media City. We are also adding some lovely beers from Runaway Brewery in Manchester to our bottle selection.

Our friends Amporn and Eric have had two really busy Saturdays providing delicious, freshly cooked Thai street food. Thai Kitchen will be back a little later in May than usual, due to prior commitments, so we're afraid you'll have to wait to enjoy their cooking until Saturday May 19th when they will be with us from 12 00 until around 7 00pm.

The following day, Sunday May 20th, we have our first Snug outing since reopening when we will visit Staveley (Hawkshead Brewery and Eagle and Child), Cartmel (Unsworth's Yard and numerous pubs) and Kendal to visit the Factory Tap and Fell Bar. Due to demand we have had to increase the size of the coach so we still have a few places left. We will be leaving The Snug at 11 00am and are due back around 8 00pm, the cost is £16pp but please get in touch asap as there are very few remaining places.

We were really pleased with our first ever brew, Snug Nouveau, a rich dark 6% stout and we especially thank Steve at Beer Nouveau for his patience, advice and good humour during the 8 hours we were there brewing on his 9 gallon kit. We especially welcomed the positive feedback from so many people.

This weekend sees the final taking place for the Snug Fantasy Football League Cup. Competing to become our inaugural winners will be Martyn Smith and Steve Foster. Good luck chaps.

That's all for now but please remember, we put regular updates, especially about our cask beers, on our Facebook and Twitter feeds.

Fantasy League Cup and Thai Street Food

The draw for the second round of the cup took place last night and was drawn again by Councillor Roly Parker. Ties will take place over game week 32. The deadline for changes is March 31 at 11 30am. The ties are as follows:

Tom Jobling v Kev Williams
Joe Jobling v Mike Pickering
Ben Ray v Julia Beaman
Mike Rowbottom v Marc Prill
S Foster v Glenn Haggart
Christine Fell v Steve Tobin
Don Penfold v Mark Holmes
Martyn Smith v John Fell

Then the following weekend sees the return of Amporn and Eric and their wonderful Thai street food. They will be with us on Saturday 7th April from 12 00pm until about 7 00pm.

We're Back

At last.

It's hard to believe now that we were closed for nearly five months. Where did the time go?

We've now been back just over a week and the last few weeks have been so busy I've only just found time to do this blog update, which I've been meaning to do for the last few weeks

We have added some fresh, new prints to the redecorated walls,  new lights over the bar and lamps on the window ledges. We now have a fresh new ceiling so we haven't replaced the drapes that masked the old, damp and leak stained ceiling so the place now feels roomier and airier, but we've kept the heart of The Snug intact.

We got the keys back on February 14th with a provisional date for reopening of 23rd February. The idea was to spend the 15th and 16th getting everything back in and ready then have the weekend end and few days to Friday 23rd making the most of our last few days off. How naïve. We worked every day, all day until 23 February finally putting the finishing touches to things at 3 30pm on the day we reopened at 5 00pm. We're really pleased with our new look and appreciate the kind comments so many people have made since we reopened.

Preparing casks for reopening

We finally pitched up at 4 40pm on the 23rd to reopen at 5 00pm and were amazed to find a crowd already outside waiting to join us. After a few months of wondering what would happen when we reopened it was a tremendous feeling to see so many old friends and new faces excitedly waiting to welcome us and The Snug back.

We opened the doors at 4 45pm and immediately the place was absolutely rammed and remained so until we called last orders. We even had messages of support from people who literally couldn't physically get in on that first night. It was truly a night to remember and we would like to thank everybody for making it so special. We finally finished cleaning and restocking at midnight, got home and hit the sack at 12 15 and went out like a pair of lights until after 8 30am on the Saturday morning.

Despite freezing weather and ferocious winds we welcomed Thai Kitchen back to Carnforth on our second Saturday and plenty of delicious Thai food and top quality beer was consumed, a wonderful day was had by all. Thai Kitchen are back with us on Aril 7th from 12 00pm until around 7 00pm.

Since we opened our doors on August 1st 2012 we are proud to have raised around £5,000 for various good causes. This Thursday we have our first charity fundraiser starting at 7 00pm. In conjunction with Pub Aid we will be holding a quiz night in aid of Prostate Cancer UK . I do hope you can join us and help raise a good amount for a very worthwhile cause.

From Friday our collecting tin for the Greyhound Trust will be back on the bar. A couple of friends and regulars have recently adopted retired greyhounds and we thought it would be good to raise some money to help this very worthwhile charity.

Well it's been hard work these last few weeks but we're glad to be back.

When's our next holiday Jules?

The Walls Come Tumbling Down

For the first time in nearly a year, not forgetting the frequent periods on and off over the last five years, there is no scaffolding around The Snug. Mike from Carnforth Models kindly sent us the photos earlier this week when we were having a break away before we reopen, provisionally on February 23rd.

Although we've missed The Snug and all our pals we have enjoyed a break since October and the time has really flown. In a previous existence I worked for medical charities mostly, fundraising, volunteer recruitment and training and awareness raising. Inevitably many of the volunteers I worked with were retired and so many used to tell me that they were so busy they had no idea how they ever had time to work. We now know what they mean. Having said that we are really excited at getting cracking again and we have already started preparing.

After the scaffolding the fencing across the front of the station came down next. Thanks again to Mike for the picture. That was when we really started to feel that we were on our way back. Driving into the station now you would never guess that we'd had months of portacabins and fencing hiding the historic frontage of the station. That was the first thing we did when we got home yesterday, drive into the station to have a peep through the window to see how the new decorating looks. The redundant platform is still sealed off until 14 February so we had to peer through the front windows like a couple of orphans. Almost as momentous as the Berlin Wall coming down!

We are now in the process of selecting the first delivery of beers and we are planning some really spectacular new ones as well as some old favourites. There is a very special one making an appearance and we are off to Manchester on Monday to sort that one which we hope to have on when we have our grand reopening night.

We have already ordered our new ciders, again some new but we will stay loyal to old favourites. We will also be stocking an improved range of sort drinks, something exciting we think for the poor old drivers.

So that's our big news for now but I'm sure there will be so much happening before February 23rd that we will be posting on here again before then.

Please don't forget that you can also keep up with our news on Twitter (@TheSnugMicropub) and Facebook (https://facebook.com/TheSnugMicropub/)
https://youtu.be/k5HfOipwvts

Good News

We were told this morning that the works should be completed and the building handed back to Network Rail on January 30th. The date that we should have access to prepare for re-opening is now February 14th. Our period of leisure is drawing to a close.

If anybody would care to come along a few of us are heading into Lancaster for a few drinks on Saturday afternoon (13 Jan). We will be getting the 13 03 train from Carnforth but feel free to join us if meeting up in Lancaster is easier. Just contact me on 07927 396861 to check where we will be.

See you all soon.