Great Retreat Pickled Onion Chompetition 2010
Our pickled onion competition was won by The Bees pickled shallots with Jim of Vicars Butchers in second place. W Baggaley got third place.
The Retreat's record breaking cross Atlantic web link up in conjunction with the Raconteur Bookshop, Metuchen, New Jersey will be a little earlier in December because thewas a great success on 2nd November 2009 when it featured Reading's singer-songwriters as part of the Whitley Arts Festival. The link-up is a regular feature on the first Sunday of each month and will start at about 5pm. We hope to feature singer-songwriters at approximately 3-monthly intervals, but anyone who would like to join in as welcome.
Change of Pub Company
From Admiral Taverns mainstream division to their Phoenix division. We look forward to finding our whether this new development means a budget is available to mend the Gents' roof!
Retreat Support Camra's LocAle scheme Reading CAMRA launched LocAle in this area last November. We are proud to participate and showcase beers brewed within 25 miles of Reading, not only for the green credentials that low beer miles confer, or because local brewers put money and jobs into the local economy, but primarily because our local SIBA brewers produce beers of excellent quality.
Songwriters' Sunday After the success ofNovember's event, it is hoped to organise another. All local singer-songwriters are invited to attend Further information from sarajanekim@yahoo.co.uk.
December Wine Talk Michael Pitt, gourmet and bon viveur of this parish has volunteered to do another of his interesting and informative wine talks. This will be on the wines of the Loire and will take place on Sunday 7thth December at 7.30pm.
Retreat wins CAMRA Regional cider pub of the year. We were delighted to have won this award for the second year running and held a special cider event from Friday 1st to Sunday 3rd August to celebrate .
Publicity from an unlikely source our man from the Torygraph drank beer here and lived! Click here for details. Eugene, Rachel and Agatha get honourable mention too.
New Wine List We have introduced some new wines for sale by the bottle for special occasions click here for details..
Battery RecyclingOne of our neighbours has undertaken to recycle batteries for us so we now have a jar on top of the piano for all your dead domestic batteries
Hugo award presented at Retreat
Local Reading author and Sci Fi buff David Langford is presented with the Hugo award for best fanzine in the Retreat. (The Hugo’s are the Science Fiction equivalent of the Oscars). The presentation was made by Martin Hoare (right in the picture), who had attended the presentation ceremony in America on David’s behalf (and had to smuggle a model rocket back through airport security).
