Winter opening

As usual Winter is creeping up on us. The nights are getting darker. The mornings are getting colder and you can already see crazy people putting up Christmas Decorations. Another Summer has passed us by in a flash and the time to hibernate is upon us. Although you may think that this means it is time for The Grog and Gruel to completely switch off you'd be wrong. It's time for all the maintenance jobs, staff training, menu reviewing and planning for next year to take place.

As a lot of this cannot take place during trade we will be closing on quieter trading nights. So from Nov 8th till Dec 17th we will be closed all together on Sundays. This is great for staff morale as we now can all watch antiques roadshow together. From November 8th till Dec 17th the restaurant will only be open Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Unless we have prior knowledge of a Christmas booking. Food will be available as usual from Noon till Nine in our Alehouse and closing time in our alehouse will be dependant on trade. So the more customers we have the later we will open (nudge, nudge).

This should not have a dramatic affect on our customers as the changes have been made after analysis of trade and after we have a few very quiet nights playing "Win, Lose or Draw" with customers. To view our opening hours for The Christmas/festive period click here.

October is Cider Month

We at the Grog and Gruel not only like to supply you with very best local produce but also seasonal produce as well. This can sometimes mean going a bit further a field than we would like for products. Sometimes even venturing South of Glen Coe. One harvest that is in full production at the moment is cooking apples for cider. This is why CAMRA have nominated October to be Cider month.


So for the whole of October we will be selling Traditional Cask Conditioned hand pulled Thatcher's Cider. Although in England Cask Cider is in abundance it very rarely travels North of the border. This is something that is changing and with a 13% increase in cider sales in Scotland this year it seems that it maybe something customers are looking for also. At 6% Thatcher's Heritage Cider has been produced in Somerset for over 100 years on a family farm. Originally made to top up workers wages on the farm and now 100 years later it is available in most Supermarkets and now at the Grog and Gruel.


Again I had a small taste (hic!) of the cider once it had settled in the cellar and can say it is very drinkable. It has also proven a great ingredient in the kitchen featuring in our own "Pork and Cider Pie" which sold out the first lunch service it was on sale. Well worth dragging yourself out the house for on a cold October night.

Blaeberry Ale At The Grog

As you know we here at The Grog and Gruel are always trying to find new and exciting beers to tempt our customers. Over the years we have seen many different ingredients added to the brewing process to add interesting flavours. We have seen wheat beer, nut beer, oatmeal beer, seaweed beer and heather beer and these are only in the last couple of years.


As hops were not a traditional Scottish crop we see some great beer recipes coming from old Scots recipes and the Picts. These include heather ale, seaweed and blaeberry ale and many more. If you venture into the Grog this week you will be able to sample two great cask ales from old pictish recipes, Fraoch Heather Ale and Isle of Skye "Cuillingorm" a Blaeberry ale.

I have already tried the Cuillingorm can say it is very drinkable. A smooth tawny ale with a deep fruity flavour. This is a seasonal brew and will only be available for a short time so well worth trying while the blaeberries are in season. As always in The Grog and Gruel we would encourage you to ask for a small sample of the beer as we are sure you will find it hard to resist a full pint to truly taste this great ale.

Going, going, gone...

Having seen the race conditions on Saturday we're surprised that the runners didn't come into the Alehouse all asking for warming cups of tea and hot chocolate. It was a bit wild up there!


But no, the bar was packed with plenty of tales of 30 mph winds, lashing rain and perhaps one of the stormier days on Ben Nevis this year. And rather than tea, it was our special Ben Nevis Race Ale that was the tipple of choice. Made exclusively for The Grog & Gruel by those talented folk at the Isle of Skye Brewery, we quickly sold 3 barrels of the stuff. And if you fancy a taste then you'd better be quick as its likely to be completely sold out by the end of the day.

So, another year over for the Ben Nevis Race. Nice to see so many familiar faces, including that of a certain victorious runner from Yorkshire who may well have been first across the line, but was the last to leave the pub!

Ben Nevis Race Weekend

Are you ready for it? Well, chances are that if you're not ready now then you won't ever be ready for the annual Ben Nevis Race this Saturday.

Half way! The Red Burn with the dreaded 'grassy bank' on the right hand side.

We're expecting to see a fair few Ben runners through the doors over the weekend so there'll be plenty of pasta available on Friday night and plenty of our special Ben Race Ale on Saturday night.

Good luck everyone!

Yes!! We have no pizzas !!

At the heart of the Grog and Gruel kitchen lies our trusty old reliable pizza oven. It has stood in place since the day we opened back all the way in 1994, when Blur were in the charts with "Parklife" and "Forest Gump" was in the cinema, good times. Over the past 15 years it has never let us down.

Picture the scene..Its mid summer in the Grog and Gruel. We are at peak trading with a full restaurant and bar with lots of hungry mouths to feed. Suddenly there is a loud bang and a bright flash and suddenly the Pizza oven fails to respond. After a lot of poking and tampering we realise there is nothing we can do. We now have to let customers know there will be a lot of disappointment.

We immediately get on the case of trying to find someone to fix our problem. Sounds easy? Well, no. After speaking to numerous catering technicians and electricians we finally get someone to look at it and find the parts we need to replace. We try to source the parts only to find not only has the original company vanished but also the company who took over from them has also vanished. Finally after days of phone calls and pulling hair out, we find a company that will custom make the parts we need. This will take over a week.

So, now we are waiting for our hand crafted parts to be sent to us. All this just to make a simple pizza. So for the next week to ten days we will have no pizza, or quesadilla's. The rest of our alehouse and restaurant menu is still in operation. Our chefs get a break from endless kneading of dough and spinning of pizza bases. Maybe next time you sit down to enjoy an authentic freshly made pizza you will think of the hassle a simple meal can be.

Trial by internet

Its taken a while, but finally we've got a review on TripAdvisor. In fact, we've got 2 reviews, although you'll have to look carefully as we've also got 2 entries!

• The Grog & Gruel

Not sure how this happened, but it appears that if you'd like to add a review of The Grog & Gruel on TripAdvisor then you've got to choose between The Grog & Gruel or The Grog AND Gruel.

World Trial Championship 2010

Hot on the heels of the Mountain Bike World Cup comes the news that the web site for the 2010 SPEA FIM World Trial Championship due to take place at Nevis Range in late June 2010 has now gone live.

Ok, so its a bit of a way off just yet, but given the antics of bikes without engines last weekend, I reckon its going to be worth seeing what a little petrol power can do. Try visiting the web site and signing up for the news updates.