A nice little review from CAMRA I am truly honoured…. clicksville

Clickety-click

Clicky McClickerson

We have been selected as The Best Tenanted/Leased pub in the East & West Midlands

apparently we now stand a chance of being named the overall champion of our category….

clicky clicky

i’ll not held my breath there, then?! Still it’s all rather nice to be recognized isnt it?

Anyway gotta go – there’s a beer festival that wont organize itself!! (August bank holiday!!)

here

The Red Lion, Hunningham, Warwickshire

16.06.09

The son of a local vicar, Sam Cornwall-Jones spent 12 years running pubs for a large pub company, but it’s his quirky, eccentric style that people warm to at The Red Lion, which is a short drive from Leamington Spa and close to both the M40 and the M1.

Ask Cornwall-Jones for directions to his pub and he admits that even sat-navs get confused. From the M40, he recommends: “Off at junction 10…take fourth exit onto A46 signposted Coventry…after 10mins come off at Kenilworth roundabout and turn right signposted Leamington A452…left at next roundabout, straight over next two roundabouts…wave to mum’s house…turn left at top of road (mini-roundabout) in Cubbington…carry on until Weston-under-Wetherley, then right into Hunningham…over bridge can’t miss pub unless it‘s flooded!”

And he’s not joking. The 150 sandbags in the car park behind The Red Lion are a gentle reminder that this 17th century pub has been badly flooded twice in the past decade.

The most recent was just before Sam Cornwall-Jones bought the pub last September and the pub was so badly damaged that it underwent a total refurbishment.

Not that flooding here should come as a real surprise – the pub is adjacent to a 14th century bridge crossing the River Leam which passes the bottom of the garden.

Before he ran pubs, Cornwall-Jones wanted to be a comic book artist and his passion for comics forms the focal point of the pub, every wall of which is plastered with framed, vintage copies of Fantastic Four, Batman, X-Factor, Supergirl and Wolverine.

It certainly makes for a refreshing change from the usual hunting pictures hanging in many country pubs.

The food, which is served all day, is honest and unfussy, with most of the produce sourced locally.

A starter of salmon and smoked trout fishcake with horseradish mayonnaise could be followed by a Warwickshire fillet steak served with Shropshire Blue butter and hand-cut chips.

There is also a selection of crisps (or ‘snackerels’) – although the board advertising them warns that “some flavours are made up”.

Whilst the mature Cheddar and chive sounds real enough, the ‘pollock and turbot’ flavoured crisps looks suspiciously like Cornwall-Jones’ waspish humour again.

It may be difficult to find, but The Red Lion is certainly a pub that makes you leave with a smile on your face.

ON THE MENU: Goats cheese and spinach pancake with orange and rocket salad, £5.50; braised half shoulder of Warwickshire mutton served with roasted carrots and creamed spinach, £15.95; apple and blueberry hazelnut crumble with custard, £5.25

The Red Lion, Main Street, Hunningham, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, 01926 632715

Informal, airy and civilised, with good individual food; fine riverside spot

The chef/landlord here is an avid collector of vintage comic books and there are 320 bright and colourful covers framed and crammed on the white walls at this spacious place. You’d swear this was a Brunning & Price pub, given the general atmosphere and open yet partly divided layout, the mix of seating from varnished chapel chairs to a variety of dining chairs, various mainly stripped tables from simple to elaborate, the rugs on bare boards or even the chunkily old-fashioned radiators. Born near here, and the son of a local vicar, the landlord did indeed work for B&P, and has brought many of that group’s virtues here, including staff attitudes (cheerful and helpful), pleasing lighting, an enterprising changing choice of about three dozen wines by the glass, and a good range of spirits including 35 single malts. Beers though are more restricted, with well kept Greene King IPA, Abbot and Old Speckled Hen on handpump; they have good coal fires, and the day’s [I]Times[I]. Big windows look out past a terrace with teak tables to picnic-sets on the lawn by a charming 14th-c bridge over the River Leam; no prams or pushchairs inside.

The food is good, fresh, generous, and individual, with soup and plenty of light dishes such as potted pheasant and hazelnut, home-cured gravadlax on toasted sourdough, shepherd’s pie, devilled kidneys, smoked salmon and crab linguine or pork belly with bubble and squeak. Main dishes might include beef and chorizo pie, smoked haddock and cod fishcakes, ham and eggs with sturdy chips, pork chop with blue cheese and apple risotto and venison casserole.

I’ve just heard that we’re a main entry this year’s guide with a wine thingumy as well!! Also The Fox has been voted Shropshire Dining pub of the year as well- Well done you crazy kids!!

Red Lion highly commended

We have been ‘Highly Commended’ in this years Food & Drink awards….I’m not quite sure what that means but hurrah! and well done us!

It’s 2nd place- I have just discovered….

If you do the clicky clicky thing on food and drink it’ll tell you aaaaall about it!