The Kettleby Cross (JD Wetherspoon), Melton Mowbray

A spoons in a modern brick building by the busiest road junction in the town. Open plan with a raised area to the right. The usual long counter runs most of the way down the left. High tables and machines in the middle, low tables at the edges and on the raised part. Standard five plus five pulls with the terrible trio duplicated, the others were three from Grainstore and one from Pheasantry, T-bars in the usual places. There was a cask of something from Oakham on gravity dispense at one end of the counter. The only deviation from normal was a do not queue sign which I like, I hate vertical queuing in pubs. The punters seemed more genteel than in some spoons. Popular with the Camras it’s been in the GBG for the last three years and has a Camra corner.

Sadly, this Wetherspoon's appears to be the best pub in the town of Melton Mowbray, with most decent pubs having closed their doors. It was my first stop of what should have been 8 pubs in the town, but half were shut down. I followed instructions and waited at the entrance for somebody to show me to a table. Another guy had just beaten me to it and was shown to a table. The manager than walked off and completely ignored me. After a couple of minutes of waiting, I entered of my own accord, ordered a drink and found my own table. It was the usual case of wondering what on earth the multitude of staff in a Wetherspoon's were actually doing. Unusually, the regular ales here are slightly different to other 'spoon's. There's no Ruddles Best here. Instead they have Greene King IPA & Abbot & Sharp's Doom Bar. The 2 guests were Shepherd Neame Spitfire & Grainstore GB Best. Ciders were Weston's Old Rosie & Thatcher's Stan's Big Apple. Unsurprisingly, given the lack of other options in the town, it was quite busy on my Bank Holiday Monday evening visit.