If you are pressed for time or can't be bothered to read the whole of this review of the refurbished North Pole pub on New North Road, I will be nice and shorten it for you. I bloody love this place - great beer, great food, nice decor, charming staff, good value. That's the short version. And I've done the conclusion already. If you want more detail and some mild beer-erotica, read on.
OK, first things first, the most important thing in a pub, the beer. This isn't just one of those places that has one or two slightly dull choices of country ale and a couple of Kernels in the fridge for the 'discerning' (i.e. people who don't like homogenous mass-produced alcoholic cold fizz that is often not even cold or fizzy, or very alcoholic). This place has a stone-cold proper range of cask and keg beers on a par with meccas like Craft in Leather Lane and The Jolly Butchers in Stoke Newington. Six cask ales at a very reasonable £3.20 a pint, four cask ciders for apple heads, and I counted eleven keg beers including the great American classics Flying Dog ‘Doggie-Style’ Pale Ale (a desert-island beer for me) and Brooklyn Lager, as well as the eye-watering, too-strong-for-this-guy ‘Human Canonball’ from the magnificent Huddersfield brewery Magic Rock. (Magic Rock are apparently so-named because they used to sell crystals and what-not to the New Age community. I'm glad they quit the rat race and took up brewing.)
I sampled a suitably sour and farmyard-y Dark Star Saison (Saisons are definitely not for everyone but I was trying to show the bar staff I was serious) and a very nice ‘Sleepless’ American Amber Ale, from Redwillow Brewery in Macclesfield, while perusing the lunch menu. Halves, mind. It is one of those menus where you want everything on offer. This is exquisite torture for the gastro-gnome. It's good and it's bad. But mainly good. A burger is always tempting in these situations. It certainly looks good in the picture on their website. Then there is the mac & cheese which has been tweeted about enthusiastically by a trusted American source. There are tempting 'snacks' like pints of prawns and chicken wings. Ribs though. Y'know, ribs. For grown-ups. The lady behind the bar recommends jerk chicken. Ribs it is. They have pork (baby back) and beef. I am warned off the beef ribs as difficult to eat, so I order the beef ribs.
The ribs are indeed hardcore and some kind of magic has been done on them; they easily rival those at nearby Dukes Brew & Que, which is a dedicated barbecue joint, and an excellent one at that. The inner parts especially are deliciously moist and beefy, as beefy and satisfying as a good steak to my mind. Not for the faint-hearted though ... put it this way: if you like the St John bone-marrow dish, or if you like bone-marrow in general, you'll love it; if you have any meat-related food fads, you won't. The kind of dish you just cannot eat without alcohol to cut it. Which is OK. This is a pub. The place itself has some nice nooks and crannies, a garden area, and a games room. I must come back when it is buzzing and full of happy young things. Or maybe not. The older I get, the more I see pubs as a daytime thing. Of all the great stolen pleasures to be had in life, going into an empty pub before midday has to be up there.
The North Pole is a pub that has modernised and cranked up the quality on all fronts without being too, how can I put this ... middle-class about it. It does not feel exclusive in any way. It is not a Gastro-pub, but it does have great food. The food is pub food, which tries to be as good as pub food can be, and largely succeeds. The word 'rocket' does appear on the menu, but only as part of a pulled pork sandwich. So it remains very much a pub in both emphasis and atmosphere. I might have said this before, but my only gripe with this place is that it's not nearer to my house. Or maybe that’s a good thing.
The North Pole
188-190 New North Road
London N1 7BJ
http://thenorthpolepub.co.uk
