It came time to pick up a growler. Not the kind of growler you read about on Urban Dictionary, but the kind of growler you can find at specialist beer shop Slowbeer.

I hadn’t been out of the house in two weeks except to go to the doctor so the chance to have breakfast out was indeed most welcome. I suggested Liar, Liar given it was in the area and has a reputation as a coffee house. Excuse the blurriness of the photo below, it was taken ‘discreetly’ whilst we were waiting to be seated.

I was pretty freaking famished and ordered the ‘big fat liar’ breakfast – eggs done the way you like with mushrooms, bacon, tomatoes, sausages, spinach and tomato relish. Probably the first time I’d had a full meal instead of the various tasteless things you have to have when you’re bedridden-sick. So bloody good. The mushrooms had a little oil and rosemary drizzled on them. I should have asked what sort of sausages they use as they’re very special.

Instead of having tea with breakfast, I opted to try a Tanzanian coffee through the Clover. I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but it was far too subtle…either it’s not to my taste or it wasn’t as good as it could be. It reminded me a bit of bad coffee-drinking days. Perhaps I need to give it another shot? I needed something a little more robust.

Tris got the ‘pigs might fly’ breakfast – twice cooked pork hock, melted aged cheddar, rocket and seeded mustard on sourdough. You can pay a little extra for a fried egg too. I nearly chose this too! Doesn’t it look scrumptious?

He also ordered coffee – a humble latte. Yes, I did just put the photo in ’cause it was awful purty…

I’ll be campaigning heavily for this place to become the ‘pre-growler fill’ haunt. There’s plenty of delicious sounding breakfast options (as well as lunch) and look forward to exploring the coffee choices available.

Ooh yes, and the growler. As well as picking up a stash of stout and porter (bottled), the beer on tap for growlers was the Brewdog Zeitgeist. Very, very sessionable and went down all too easily. The growler was drained in two days and that was with exercising restraint! A quick consult to ratebeer.com informed me that this is a schwartzbier – a nice dark beer with very little hop flavour and roast malt characteristics. See the growler and beer below.

No wonder I loved the Zeitgeist so much – it’s the same style as the Rogue Dirtoir which was heavenly. It could be just the name but yes, there is a hint of dirt aroma there! Think freshly turned warm dirt in your garden. If stout and even porter is just a bit too ‘heavy’ for you, I’d recommend dark lager as your ‘gateway’ beer.