The Hog Penny Pub – Bermuda - Burnaby Hill, Hamilton. 441-292-2434
If you happen to claim English nationality, you’ll know exactly what I mean when I say this is what the pubs used to be like back in the days in England. Unfortunately, these days you’ll need to travel the length and breadth of England to find anything that even comes close to the once prevalent English pub. And, if you are English, and can remember the old-style pubs, you’ll also understand the nostalgia I felt when I walked into the Hog Penny a few weeks ago. It was like stepping back it time, in another place, on a different continent, so authentic was the atmosphere. That first pint of draft Guinness was one I’ll remember.
The coinage in Bermuda began way back in the early 1600s as Hog Money, and that’s where the pub gets its name. Hog Money was “the earliest British Colonial currency.” Governor Nathaniel Butler tells about it in his 1620 account The Historye of the Bermudaes or Summer Islands like this: "having a hog stamped upon it on one side (in memory it should seem of the great number of wild swine found upon the Islands at their first discovery in 1609 by the shipwrecked crew of the Sea Venture), and was, in a scoff, termed by the people hogge money." Hog Money included four particular coins: the Shilling, Sixpence, Thrupence, and the Two pence. They were all similar in design with a picture of a hog on the obverse side. Today, hog money is found only in museums, and rarely even then. The pub that carries its name, however, is quite a different story.
Established in 1957, the Hog Penny was cobbled together from odds and ends taken from old Watney’s pubs in England – yes, those old pubs were already on their way out even back then. An interesting side note: the Hog Penny pub in Bermuda was the inspiration for the "Cheers" Pub in Boston.
The food is a mixture of typically Bermuda and English “pub grub.” Here are just a few of my favorites: Pan fried rockfish with Gosling’s Black Seal rum and ginger beer sauce, served with basmati rice and sautéed vegetables - $26; Seafood Mixed Grill (an English innovation if ever there was one) with three types of market seafood, lemon-caper-parsley butter, basmati rice and daily vegetables - $23; Roast Rack of lamb rubbed in a mix of allspice, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon and served with a sweet potato mash, sautéed vegetables - $29; English-style Fish & Chips - fillets of grouper (it would be cod if you had it in England) coated with crispy beer batter and served with French fries and tartar sauce $21; Shepherd’s Pie is another old English favorite - ground sirloin is seasoned then topped with mashed potato - $18; No authentic English pub would be complete without the inevitable Steak and Kidney Pie - beef and kidney is cooked in a red wine sauce and then covered with a short pastry crust and served with French fries.
Open 11:30am until 3pm for lunch, and from 5:30pm until 10pm for dinner. Reservations for dinner are a good idea – it’s a busy pub.
Here are a few more of my favorite restaurants in Bermuda:
- Ristorante Premavera
- The Harbourfront
- The Newport Room Restaurant
- The Waterlot Inn Restaurant
- Rosa's Cantina
- The Hog Penny Pub
- The Freeport Seafood Restauant
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