A recent (lovely) article in ‘Ferment’ magazine
“Ferment’s monthly series profiling venues combining innovative food with award-winning beer continues in the West Midlands spa town…
It’s a venue where one could begin an evening by reading a Beano annual from the Seventies and end it with (free) games of Street Fighter on a Nineties arcade. In the two or three hours that might stretch happily and hazily in between, drinks might be accompanied by playing board games (Risk, anyone? Trivial Pursuit Genius Edition?), gazing at a gallery’s worth of framed comic art, or simply admiring more pop culture memorabilia than one could shake a Darth Vader cushion at.
So, look, yes, fine.
Obviously we’re here – at The Drawing Board amid the regency splendour of Leamington Spa – for the beer and food. There are 12 taps and four hand-pulls offering treats like Liquid Light, Attic and Siren, while the menu stretches from hipster hits (fried aubergine you say?) to your nana’s favourites (locally-sourced spam fritters). Of course these are the main things.
But – OH MY GOODNESS!! – is that the 1989 Roy of the Rovers annual? It is! Forgive me, I may be a while with some childhood flashbacks here.
See, The Drawing Board is more than your average (award-winning) craft bar and gourmet kitchen. Rather, it’s also an ode to geek culture and board game nostalgia.
Amid mismatch furniture, more than 200 comic books are crammed onto specially built shelves here; dozens of games (pilfered from car-boot sales) are stacked in a couple of corners; and wall art doffs a trilby hat to everything from Batman and the Bash Street Kids to Sonic and Super Mario. It’s
part-pub, part-nerd fest – all lit by vintage lamps.
“We get some people come in and you see them get an annual to look at and then they spend half the night reading it, ignoring their friends” laughs general manager Jack Carduff over glasses of Liquid Light’s Obscured By Clouds table beer (2.9% and delicious) and Lost and Grounded’s The Sum of Us gose. “The books are meant as a decorative style piece. It’s not a library. But we do have people come in and just sit reading with a pint. Or groups who’ll get the Monopoly out and go a full game.
You hear the negotiating get louder as the night goes on.” It’s all the brainchild of Sam Conwall-Jones.
We’ll speak with him shortly. For now, the food. Put down that A-Team book and look at the menu – it’s a stunner.
The pulled pork shoulder taco is a Mex-marvel, while those spam fritters get served in an actual spam can. The fried aubergine is everything a hipster would dig: fresh, fragrant and fiery with a maple siracha top.
What else? The five-ounce steak is a finely cooked mini meat slab served with chips, watercress and minimal other clutter; the fish and chips are beer-battered and beautiful; and the pan-seared duck breast – served with celeriac fondant and pickled blackberries – is a dinner so good you’d probably choose it for a final supper.
This, in short, is food that truly deserves that increasingly common sell-tag: ‘elevated’. And – accompanied by Attic Brewery’s Pivotal IPA and a (aptly named) Simple Pleasures extra pale by Nene Valley Brewery – this is a meal of both substance and style.
“I’m glad you enjoyed it,” says Cornwall-Jones afterwards. “We want the whole experience to have personality. It’s supposed to be the exact opposite of a generic pub.”
All that memorabilia, incidentally, is his. The 51-year-old’s a collector and, when he opened this place in 2015 – after two decades in hospitality – he decided he wanted the decor to reflect his passion. “I have loads more in storage,” he says. “Occasionally, we’ll close the place for a day and change it all round.”
We’re onto Bear Town’s Schrödinger’s Bear IPA – with an ice cream cookie sandwich – and it’s a lush way to round off the evening. And, so, flicking through that Beano annual one last time, there’s
Dennis the Menace at a restaurant with his long-suffering mum and dad. “Top nosh, Gnasher,” he says. Well, quite.”
