Pint Sized

Having gone in in a spirit of professional journalistic enquiry for a quick pint and a scan of the paper, I ended up staying so long I spent my last pennies there and had to walk home. For an hour. In the snow.

Apart from that I can hardly find a thing bad to say about this small back-street boozer and restaurant in Hockley. Er... the music was rubbish (The "Jim'll Fix It" theme tune was a personal low point), it's not close enough to my house... ok that's all I can think of.

So enough of the bad: on with the good. To sum up, it's fantastic here. I was talking to a world-famous American actor on Friday night (sort of), and he told me he loved coming to Britain and going to the pub because people were so friendly and would come up to you and talk to you.

At first I thought, well maybe if you've appeared in films, but I don't see that much myself. But was I ever proved wrng by the friendly types in the Black Eagle the afternoon I went. Not that I'm saying I made any new bosom buddies, but it's always nice, and adds as much to the welcoming atmosphere as the roaring fire on a cold winter afternoon.

Split into three small rooms, a public bar and two small lounges (although the bar seems to be closed when I'm there), the Black Eagle is deceptively small, and so a very cosy atmosphere, although I wouldn't want to try to find a table when it gets crowded here.

And the eclectic choice of beers is simply a joy to work through. At the time of my visit, there's the Ansell's range as standard, plus a list of around five guests, including Timothy Taylor Landlord, Kelham Island Easy Rider (pleasant but not a patch on its more hefty cousing Pale Rider), and Salopian Hop Twister (pleasently fruity but not bitter enough to match up to its name).

You could easily - and unfortunately for me I did - end up whiling away a surprisingly long afternoon or evening here working through the range and soaking up the atmosphere of this great little pub.

PS I'm told the food here is excellent, and there certainly seemed to be enough people queuing up for it to make that easy to believe. The plush restaurant at the back of the pub was packed for the few hours I was there.

Remember, keep the suggestions coming in to thomasscotney@hotmail.com, and I'm always good for a pint or two if you can recommend somewhere good.