London Pub Tour 15 - King's Cross: Euston Flyer and The Boot (New Years Eve)

So early evening New Year's Eve was going to be spent at a few pubs in and around King's Cross before heading onto a party. Whilst awaiting friends I had scoped out how busy some of the pubs were in Euston to King's Cross area. I noticed that the Betjeman Arms in St Pancras wasn't too busy and schedued to meet my mates there. Sadly when walking into the pub half an hour later at 7pm the barman informed us the pub was closing. Evidently they decided trade was slow that they would let staff have the evening off, and I certainly don't begrudge them for that.

Photo by Ewan Munro - Flickr

So instead it was off to the Euston Flyer (NW1 2RA), a Fuller's pub directly opposite the British Library which is located closer to King's Cross than Euston. The pub was busy due to showing the Footie, but there was a little seating available. Managing to grab a table I had my first of three beers at the Euston. My first two pints were the ever dependable ESB, though perhaps on a night like New Year's I should have started on a lower ABV. My last pint was a switch to Frontier, which was Fuller's first ever lager when it launched about 3 1/2 years ago. I've never really enjoyed Frontier as much as some of the other craft lagers and generally in a choice between this and mainstream lagers, in most instances I would select mainstream. On this occassion I felt like a lager and considering I don't like Peroni (The one mainstream lager I really can't stand) I chose Frontier.

The Flyer is based on the ground floor of a sixties building that you can tell was a conversion into a pub. It's a large-ish open plan pub with some high level areas aimed at dinning, but not specifically restricted for eaters only. The pub has been given the mahogany look, and the bar itself on one of the side walls wouldn't look out of place in an old Victorian corner pub.

The Euston Flyer was still busy when I set off to my next pub which was down the back streets away from King's cross moving towards Russell Square. It's was an Irish pub which I used to frequent quite often 8+ years ago called The Boot (WC1H 8BS). On the outside the boot didn't look too busy, but on the inside it was buzzing with a variety of age rages and both genders. As it was New Year's the pool table had been pushed against one of the walls and covered, and the expected Irish food spread had been laid atop. That's always one thing I do love about proper Irish pubs, and it's the element of offering free food on certain occasions.

The boot isn't a large pub, more a modest size, that is square. When walking in the bar is to your right against the side wall. All along the walls are photographs and paraphernalia from a variety of sports, including the Hurling and Gaelic Football. I had thought from memory that The Boot served Murphy's but clearly my memory was lying and they offered up Guinness or Guinness Extra Cold. On the bar they also had a house lager with the imaginative name 'The Boot'. I opted for a pint of this but lived to regret it. The beer was very metallic and had an off smell. After looking into it at the pub I found out that the beer was actually Belhaven House lager and it has very mixed reviews. I swapped over to the Guinness for my next two pints as there had to be safety in numbers at that stage.

Sadly that was all for my pub tour before heading off to the party I attended. I didn't drink anything too extra-ordinary. The only drink worth mentioning is the Big Wave Golden Ale by Kona Brewery in Hawaii. I've had this bottle beer before. It's smooth and easy to drink, but not something that if I seen in bottle would make me reach for it over other beers.

So I finally managed to write up all my December exploits before January ended. As January wasn't too busy a month due to friend's being on Dry January I have less Pub Tours, meaning I should hopefully be able to play catch up in February, and maybe even start writing up some of my non-London pub tours amongst other pieces I have in the works.