A visit to Scott's View

It's been a busy couple of days, so I'm only getting around to mentioning the two bars I visited last weekend. The first was a bar i was brought to when the company I now work for was showing me around, really selling Münster as a place to live. Scott's View is talked about as a Scottish pub, and I believe the previous owner was certainly Scottish, and maybe the current owner also is. It was his night off, so I couldn't tell. I got in just after 8pm to meet a friend and the place was almost empty as they only open at 8pm. It's nice enough inside with a smallish bar, a raised area to one side with a mix of wooden kitchen, leather and club chairs, and a games room to the other side with a pool table, a very high tech looking darts board and a card table. This is also the smoking room, and a game of cards was in progress.

It's a curious mix of slightly modern clean lines with an older looking bar design and bits of bric-a-brac around the walls practically all of which has a Scottish theme. Beer-wise they had Belhaven Stout, Newcastle Brown Ale, Pilsner Urquell and Strongbow on draught, and Tannen Zapfle, Grolsch, various incarnations of Franziskaner Weissbier, Becks and Duvel (which was out of stock). Not a huge or fantastic selection, so I opted for a Newcastle Brown for old times sake.

They do have an impressive looking Whiskey menu though, with tasting notes included. A good number of Islands, Speyside, Highland and a couple of Lowland whiskies were represeented there.

As I was early I popped over to the James, the Yorkshire pub just down the road for one before returning. There I chose a Black Sheep Riggwelter (veinous, burnt dried fruits, slight woody notes, strong and very nice for the cold night it was!) from a fairly decent selection. Certainly the best selection of British beers I have seen since I moved here. I'll return to the James another time, but I'll just mention that I ended up chatting with a German chap at the bar who was drinking Rochefort 8 and who was a big fan of Belgian beer (he told me where I could find someon sale in Münster). We discussed the gebot and how it killed off local beer styles, and he knew a fair bit about Mumme. I was impressed! As he was a lawyer I was trying to find out if German brewers technically have to follow the gebot, but it was a bit unclear and I had to return to Scott's View.

I have to say I liked Scott's View last time I was there, and when I returned after my break down the road it had filled up and there was a nice hum of chat. Apparently they used to do fish and chips, but only do chips now, but the bar area stank of deep fat fryer for a while. A bit off-putting. I had a couple Belhaven Stout (sweet, chocolately in a fruit and nut way, quite flat and slightly boring) before heading off for a kebab (and chips I should add - the power of suggestion!) and nearly missing my bus. If my companion hadn't been avoiding the James (for personal reasons) I would have preferred to return there, but I'll give a run down of that place another time.