The Kernel Brewery

There is an inevitable frustration in making a 24 hour trip down to London for work. Trapped in a taxi from Euston to the hotel the whole buzz of the city passes by unheeded-I could be travelling anywhere.

We ate in a branch of Byrons tucked on the first floor of a mostly closed chopping precinct on Cheapside alongside St Pauls. Although the setting was soulless it was difficult to fault the food – posh burgers and chips. The chips, the mark of any half decent restaurant were properly hot from their fat, crisp with a good bite. The burger was layered with onion and tomato, medium rare, as I had asked. Last time I had been there it came with a bourbon flavoured dressing. That did not seem to be on the menu but the great fat gerkin slice on the side of the plate made up for that.

There was a short menu of craft beers and I had a couple of bottles of The Kernel Pale Ale – good depth of flavour and finish and pleasantly cloudy. I have never heard of The Kernel beer but a quick squint at their website would indicate they are worth investigating

http://www.thekernelbrewery.com/index.html

The website then led me onto beer online which could be dangerous in the lead up to Christmas

http://www.beermerchants.com/

After Byrons we struggled to find a pub that was open at 10.00 on a Monday evening evetualy stumbling across The Centre Page on Knightrider Street. We were the only people in there apart from the east European bar staff sat round a table polishing up culterey before serving us another pint. There was a Dvid Hasselhoff shrine in the corner and a note of the number of times he had visited. I should of had my camera.

There was more frustration the next day in the rush to get back to Liverpool there was no time to find somewhere half decent to eat so it was an expensive ham sandwich, crisps and a bottle of Coke on the train.