The Mysteries of Samuel Smith's

Sunday, 26 July 2009

I know plenty of people who hate Sam Smith's pubs because they don't sell Guinness or Stella. I fell in love with them shortly after moving to London as a student ten years ago. Their resolute stance against all prevailing fashion certainly appealed but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't their remarkable £1.60-a-pint pricing policy that kept me going back to places like the Chandos off Trafalgar Square and the Fitzroy Tavern on Charlotte Street.

Other than regularly boring people with the great bit of pub trivia that Samuel Smith was John Smith's cousin I've rarely given much thought to the company that brews Britain's cheapest pint but Pete Brown makes some interesting observations about them in his new book Hops and Glory. It's part history of India Pale Ale and part travelogue of Pete's attempt to recreate the voyage that took IPA halfway across the world to quench the thirsts of sozzled expats. Before coming up with that idea though Pete considered writing a piece of investigative journalism about Sam Smith's.

I've enjoyed Pete's previous beery books, Man Walks Into a Pub and Three Sheets to the Wind. Not only are they entertainmgly written they're also full of quotable nuggets I can't help but bother Joanne with. Ten pages into Hops and Glory I stopped to read this out aloud: "If Willy Wonka had been into beer instead of chocolate, he would have been called Samuel Smith". Pete sums up Sam Smith's pubs perfectly:

Sam Smith's pubs are cultish in both commonly used senses of the word. They look like they haven't been decorated since the 1970s, but not in a bad way. They only stock their own brands of everything. They don't advertise. They don't talk to writers or journalists, even those who love them. They don't even have a website

What really interested Pete about Sam Smith's though was "why are they so secretive. What they've got to hide. How they come to own so many pubs in London, given that they're based in Yorkshire and these pubs must be worth a fortune."

I'm halfway through Hops and Glory and glad that Pete chose IPA as his subject rather than Sammy Smith's. Still, I'd now really like to know the answers to those questions, wouldn't you?

Related Posts
Three Sheets to the Wind - piece I wrote about Pete's previous book on my other blog, Carnival Saloon

Related Links
Pete Brown's Beer Blog - worth reading even if you're teetotal
Amazon: Hops and Glory- buy Pete's excellent new book
Amazon: Three Sheets to the Wind- Pete's beer world tour
Amazon: Man Walks into a Pub- enlightening (and funny) history of the British boozer
Sam Smith's London Pub Map - where to find a pint of Old Brewery