Is the British pub an endangered species?

by Sean McLachlan on

The figures are in for 2011 and it’s more bad news for the British pub. An average of 14 a week shut down, and Oxfordshire alone lost 35 this past year.

The pub is an institution. More than just a place to drink real ale, it’s a place to see friends, get out of the house, do the pub quiz, and watch football.

My family and I spend every Easter and summer in Oxford, and while we aren’t big drinkers, the pub is one of our regular destinations. Our local is The Fir Tree, which has a great Sunday roast and friendly atmosphere. They even allow well-behaved children like my son.

When I’m in Oxford I’m usually researching in the Bodleian Library. After a few hours of poring over old manuscripts I need a break, so I head across the street to The White Horse, familiar to Inspector Morse fans as Morse’s favorite watering hole. Usually I bump into several other researchers there and The White Horse has been unofficially designated the Bodleian Library slack-off pub!

British pubs are an institution, now under threat from a number of factors. High beer taxes make a night out expensive, and cut-rate supermarket booze is drawing many drinkers away. Also, the demographic of many neighborhoods is changing, with some areas filling up with immigrants who don’t drink, or who at least don’t drink in public.

It’s a shame so many pubs are disappearing but I don’t really see how that trend is going to be reversed. The government isn’t about the lower taxes, and the economic crisis is making more people stay home. If you’re coming to this part of the world, however, make sure to visit some pubs. You’ll find a genial atmosphere, good drinks, historic buildings, and interesting local tales. The White Horse is more than 300 years old and during renovations a “witch’s broom” was found in the rafters. Nobody would touch it so it was boarded up and is still there. Other pubs have stories too, including ghosts, visits by royalty, and of course acting as backdrops to movies and TV.

So go drink at a pub. Saving a cultural icon has never been so much fun.

Photo courtesy flickr user calflier001.

Want to be part of a giant tomato fight?

by Jessica Festa on




Food fights are not restricted to your high school cafeteria anymore. And best of all, you won’t get detention for chucking produce at someone’s head. In fact, at the traveling Tomato Battle events, tomato throwing is actually encouraged as a giant tomato fight is part of the event’s main attractions. Attendees can also enjoy delicious brews from the beer garden, costume contests, and live entertainment.

The next Tomato Battle event will take place at the Texas State Fair Park in Dallas, Texas. Click here to keep up to date on when Tomato Battle will be in your city, or contact them to help plan an event local to you. You can also check out this video to get a better idea of what kind of chaotic fun to expect.

Cider: Spain’s other great alcoholic beverage

by Sean McLachlan on

While Spain is justly famous for its fine wines, the country also produces an amazing amount and variety of alcoholic cider. It’s made almost exclusively in the northern four regions that make up Green Spain.

From west to east these regions are Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, and the Basque Country, which isn’t actually a country but that’s another story. This region gets a lot of rain and is much more temperate than the rest of Spain, so it’s a good place to grow apples.

Asturias makes the most cider, called sidra in Spanish. It tends to be sweet, crisp, and a bit cloudy. You pour it from way up high like I’m doing here. This puts bubbles into the cider that makes it a bit like drinking champagne, assuming you get it in the glass and not on your kitchen floor.

I’ve seen Bedouin doing this with coffee and they said it both cooled the coffee and added to the taste. Hmmm. . .perhaps aerating liquid adds to the flavor?

Galicia produces some fine cider as well, as does the Basque Country, where in the Basque language it’s called sagardoa. The region that produces the least in Green Spain is Cantabria, where I’m living. So little is produced that I’ve met Cantabrians who said I couldn’t find any here! Well, find it I did, at a little farmers’ market downtown. It’s pretty good, but I have to say that Asturian cider is better.

Northern cuisine uses cider in lots of recipes, including my favorite chorizo a la sidra, a wonderfully rich and flavorful way to harden your arteries. You can see some below in this Wikimedia Commons photo. So if you’re headed to Spain, keep an eye out for restaurants serving northern cuisine and try out the sidra or sagardoa. It makes a nice change from wine.

Yes, Food Week was last week here at Gadling, but we’ll still be bringing you tips about what to eat and drink around the world!

Sexy titanium travel accessories from Snow Peak

by Pam Mandel on

The spork is one of those things you really shouldn’t leave home without. Yeah, it’s dorky and has funny name, but it’s your friend when you want a yogurt from the corner market and all you have to eat it with are those stir sticks in the hotel coffee condiment package.

And the refillable coffee or other beverage canister, well, are you really still taking your coffee to go in a throw away paper cup? It’s not like you can’t find those refillable things as swag at every other conference you attend, right?

Say you’re not too uptight to reuse your own coffee container, but you don’t want one that says “large software company” or “weird beverage with additives” on the side. Say you want something that’s mad stylish, sexy even. Say you want your spork to express the fact that you are traveling light, practical, and know your metallic elements. Snow Peak has the gear for you and it’s dead sexy stuff, too.

Here’s what hot about the spork: The colors, for starters, those yummy brushed metal colors. They’re not painted, the color is bonded to the metal through some kind of crazy magic, so while yeah, they’ll fade over time, they’ll still hold that shiny blue, that that glowing purple, that sparkly green.There’s a punchhole on the handle so you can put it on your key ring. And really, it’s pretty. Also, for now, there’s no mention of the mighty spork on the TSA’s prohibited items list — I checked.As for Snow Peak’s Kanpai bottle/canister, it’s super sharp too, and super light weight. It’s got three lids for it — one for hot, one for cold, and one with a sliding valve for drinking. You can store the cold lid in the freezer, making your canister the perfect tiny icebox for one can of soda (or, uh, adult beverage). The drinking lid has a tight enough valve on it that it’s not going to leak when it’s in the water bottle pocket on the outside of your daypack. It comes in silver white, or red, and it’s also a very sharp looking piece of gear.

Snow Peak makes a lot of other smokin’ hot gear — their Hozuki camping lantern won a Travel+Leisure design award. The gear in the Snow Peak lines isn’t cheap (the spork comes in at a modest $9.95, but the canister retails for $69.95.) but it’s well designed. It’s the kind of stuff an outdoorsy person like me wants someone to give them as a gift, or that you’d want to give to someone that’s got everything but might appreciate a really good one that’s meant to last forever. (See also: Cafe latte set. Want.) Super lightweight. Serious style. Yeah, I like pretty much all of this stuff. It’s the truth.

Gadling’s 2011 NYC summit / NoFF happy hour recap

by Stephen Greenwood on

One week ago, the nefarious crew here at Gadling assembled from all parts of the globe to gather in the Big Apple for our annual team summit. Led by Gadling’s steadfast Editor-in-Chief & tequila pusher, Mr. Grant Martin, the team took to the bustling streets of NYC for a weekend of strategizing, socializing, pool sharking, and vital face time.

The highlights of the weekend (from what we can remember) included a travel/tech panel organized & curated by Gadling’s own Jeremy Kressmann; where Drew Patterson (CEO of Jetsetter), Geoff Lewis (CEO of Topguest) and Grant Martin discussed the present and future of social media’s impact on loyalty programs.


On Saturday evening, we had the pleasure of teaming up once again with the boys at the Nomading Film Festival to wrangle some of the top NYC-based talent in the travel industry for our second happy hour of 2011. Hosted at the Lolita Bar in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, we convened over a special pouring

of 17 Year Old Fine Oak & 18 Year Old Sherry Oak Single Malts from the Macallan. A sensible amount of scotch & tequila was consumed, new friends were made, old friends reunited, and when the fine folks at Mastercard & Travelocity started feeling generous, coveted gifts (and gnomes) were raffled.

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We couldn’t have asked for a better group to share the celebrations with; thank you to all that were able to make it. If you missed us this time around, then scroll through the gallery above to see the photos that we were allowed to publish. If you want the uncensored version, you’ll just have to join us next time!