25 Jan 20

Burns Night at the Sally

It may or may not come as a shock to some of you that the Landlord is in fact a quarter Scottish (insert stereotypical joke about how tight he is here). About time therefore that we celebrated Burns Night for the first time here at the Sally. In case you’re in any doubt we are of course going to do it in true Sally style. Chef Brian will be cooking up the traditional dish of haggis which we will be piping in (either with a live bagpiper if anyone can play them or with a cheap CD we’ve bought of Amazon if we can’t). We’ll also have other traditional Scottish delicacies available such as hot toddies, leek and tattie soup, Isle of Mull cheese and naturally for dessert, deep-fried battered mars bar with rye ice cream! As well as Scottish whisky we’ll have some of Scotland’s finest beer available, no not Tennant’s Super but BrewDog of course! Anyone wearing a kilt or performing a recital will be treating to a free whisky and just for a bit of added fun we’ll have a mini-quiz to tax each table with the winners getting a selection box of the best of Scotland’s food and drink producers. All in all, it’s going to be a lot of fun. Food served from 7pm. See you there.

27 Jan 20

Hot-pot and Pint Night

Monday’s are tough enough to deal with as it is without having to think of something to cook in the evening as well. You’ve got another week of drudgery and work ahead of you and the last thing you need is to worry about is whether you’ve got enough gone-off mushrooms to scrape together another bl**dy Jamie Oliver pasta bake. Let’s face it, with this level of depression and gloom you’re definitely going to need some kind of beer-based anaesthesia to get you through and a deathly dull bottle of Doom Bar from the Co-Op just isn’t going to cut it. What you need is the Sally to take all this pain away from you. What you need is a steaming hot bowl of a delicious, comforting stew all made with quality, local ingredients. What you need is a fresh, foaming pint of perfectly conditioned ale to sup your troubles away. What you need is the cheery company of others who can understand and alleviate your Monday blues. What you need is the gentle crackle of a log fire to warm and soothe your soul. What you need is the Sally Hot-Pot and Pint Night. Yep that’s right, every Monday night the Sally Hot-Pot and Pint Night will bring you a different hotpot, stew, casserole or chilli plus a pint for just £8 with food served between 5pm and 8pm. That’s Monday sorted, just got to get through Tuesdays now….!! This week’s dish is lamb neck, potato & rosemary hotpot served with crusty bread and butter.

27 Jan 20

Locals Behind the Bar Night – Cobweb Corner

Local’s Behind the Bar Night is back! This can only mean one of two things – either the Sally is short staffed once again (we are by the way), or it’s a ruse to have a laugh at our beloved locals expense as we watch them mis-pouring pints, messing up the till and falling for the old “Guinness shandy” request. The concept is pretty simple. We give our locals the chance to step behind the hallowed Sally bar and see how difficult (or easy) it is to do our job after only 15 minutes till training. Each set of locals will serve for an hour and a half (from 6pm till 7.30pm) and will have the opportunity to collect tips and rattle buckets for the charity of their choice. Any way to win favour with the customers and collect more tips (fancy dress, working on one leg, bribery with homemade sausage rolls etc) is highly encouraged. As an added incentive to perform well, for the locals which take the most amount of cash behind the bar in that hour and a half, we’ll donate the entire of those takings to their chosen charity. Expect queues, expect chaos, expect lots of fun! First into the firing line are long-standing regulars, Cobweb Corner (aka the Palmers and the Greenaways) who will be raising money for Alzheimer’s Society. Make sure come along to support them or give them grief – whichever you fancy!

30 Jan 20

The Sally Cheese Club

One of the few things that we love almost as much as beer and cider here at the Sally is cheese. Being based in Berkeley we are also steeped in cheese-making history with the town once famous for being the cheese capital of the county (Double Berkeley anyone?!). Given this, we’ve decided that we need to celebrate, nay worship, our favourite booze accompaniment on a monthly basis. Ladies and gentlemen, may we present to you The Sally Cheese Club! Our resident cheese connoisseur Jerry (no, not a cartoon mouse but actually a cheesemaker for the legendary Jonathan Crump) will take all you fans of fromage through a hand-picked selection of world cheeses that would make Wallace and Gromit wet themselves. Jerry will be pairing each cheese with a sample of perfectly paired beverages from some of the world’s finest beers and ciders and some alright wine as well. Sally Cheese Club will run on the last Thursday of every month starting at 7.30pm . Tickets are £17 each (available to book in advance now from the bar) and include a selection of and introduction to six different cheese and drink pairings from our man Jerry.

This month at Cheese Club as we welcome in the new year we look at the new cheeses being produced in current renaissance of British cheesemaking. We’ll taste six of the finest hand-picked cheeses from the best of our hard-to-find artisan and farmhouse cheesemakers and learn the stories behind them. Six great cheeses to taste, each paired with a different drink, each with a story to tell.

01 Feb 20

Ross Cider Tap Takeover Tour – Keg Conditioned Cider Showcase

In 2019 Ross-on-Wye Cider Company were declared the UK’s Best Drink’s Producer at the BBC Food and Farming Awards. Champions of authentic, full juice, wild fermented cider they make some of the most exciting, beautiful and uncompromisingly natural ciders we have ever tasted. After winning such a prestigious award, Ross Cider are not content to rest on their laurels and are now pushing the vanguard of natural cider even further by moving into a format previously only really reserved for dumbed (and watered) down, mass produced offerings; kegged cider. Ross Cider’s take on keg cider is unique. Whilst most keg cider consumed in the UK contains less than 35% fermented apple juice, is pasteurised, artificially carbonated, sweetened and fermented with domestic yeast, Ross Cider are releasing a limited number of keg conditioned (naturally carbonated) ciders made with 100% apple juice fermented with naturally occurring wild yeast. For these kegs Ross Cider have produced four single variety ciders made from classic cider apples Dabinett, Somerset Redstreak, Yarlington Mill and Foxwhelp all grown on their own farm. Each variety brings it’s own characteristics to blended ciders and under the expert tuition of Ross’s Albert Johnson we’re offering you a unique opportunity to sample each individual variety and then create your own blend from them. We’re delighted to be chosen as one of only seven venues across Europe to host this incredible experiment in cider blending and tasting as Ross Cider take their very limited number of naturally kegged ciders on a Tap Takeover Tour – these ciders will not be available to try anywhere else! If that wasn’t exciting enough our own Chef Brian will be serving up plates of delicious cider tapas perfectly selected to accompany these fine ciders. Cider and food will be available from 7pm – make sure you don’t miss out on what is going to be an extraordinary evening.

02 Feb 20

The Sunday Sally Singalong – first Sunday each month from 6pm

The late afternoon/early evening Sunday session in the Sally is one of our favourites. Sunday lunch is all washed up, you’ve kicked out the relatives, Saturday’s hangover is starting to clear and before you even start thinking about another working week, there is just one last treat to squeeze in. Time to get out of the house, have a brisk walk up to the Sally and sink a few relaxing pints with friends sat by the warm fire. Well, those Sunday evening sessions just got even better since we found hand-clapping, foot-stomping, ivory-tinkling, Elton John-eat-your-heart-out, piano playing legend “Mike The Piano” (OK we’re not sure what his surname is). Mike is the most gifted pianist and can pretty much play any number you ask guys for (“Do you know your monkey’s stolen my pint? “No but if you hum it…” etc etc). American Pie, Crocodile Rock, Hey Jude, you name it and he will play it (and we’ll probably butcher it trying to sing along). The Sunday Sally Singalong takes place on the first Sunday of each month from 6pm and is brilliant way to round off your weekend and is well worth delaying Mondays for.

03 Feb 20

The Monday Night Sew and Sews

UK consumers spent approximately £3.5bn on clothing last Christmas with an estimated 8m of those garments to be thrown away after just one use. The trend for cheap, throwaway clothing or “fast fashion” as it is known raises serious moral and environmental concerns. In 2015 the global fashion industry produced 1.2bn tonnes of CO2 – more than international flights and the maritime shipping industry combined. If this trend continues the fashion industry could account for a quarter of the world’s carbon budget by 2050. Un-ironed check shirts aside, you’ve probably noticed the Sally isn’t exactly a focal point for fashionistas (less Milan more Ham) but nonetheless we can still do our little bit to help. May we introduce to you a new drop-in clothing repair service called the Monday Night Sew and Sews, headed-up by our favourite local laundrette ‘Hard Pressed for Time’ and the award-winning handicraft-duo ‘Havin’ A Hoots Crafts’. If you’ve got an old shirt that needs a new button sewing on, a pair of trousers embarrassingly ripped across the buttocks or a favourite jacket in need of a new zip then bring it into the Sally and if you buy them a drink, our Sew and Sews will fix it for you. So for the price of a pint you can have your favourite clothes fixed, save money on buying new ones and you can even have one of our “Hotpot and Pints” whilst you wait. If you’re a dab hand at sewing and want to join the Sew and Sews for a needle and a natter then the more the merrier! They’ll be there every other Monday from 5.30pm – 7.30pm. Best get there early though as they might just get a tiny bit slower as the evening goes on!

13 Feb 20

The Great Sally Alley Quiz

Yes that’s right Ladies and Gentlemen, roll-up roll-up roll-up your sleeves, its time to start swotting, sweating and rubbing those brain cells together for The Great Sally Alley Quiz!

“What’s so great about it?” we hear you cry. Well, it’s at the Sally of course!

“We thought you said you’d never do a quiz – running out of ideas are we?” Aah sod off!

Enough with the awkward questions, here’s how it works; on the second Thursday of every month we’re inviting a different Berkeley charity to set the questions, act as quizmaster and trouser all the entry fees. There will be six rounds of different topics chosen by the charity, including one specific to their own cause. They ask you questions, you try and answer them. The team with the most correct answers wins beer. We’re allowing teams of up to six people and entry fee is £4 per person. Register your team for 7.45pm and the great quizzing commences at 8pm. It’s going to be great…I don’t know why we didn’t think of this before?!?!?

This month’s quiz is hosted by our very own, foul-mouthed cocky barmaid Amanda Howard who will be donating all entry fees to the Longfield Hospice.

20 Feb 20

Folk Night

The Sally house band (Sally and the Hamonites) will be playing in the front bar of the Sally on the third Thursday of every month. Expect screaming fiddles, rattling banjos and heaving accordions with some traditional Irish jigs and reels! As Shane MacGowan once described it, it’s “heart, b*lls and feet music”!! Music usually starts about 7.30pm.