Royal Hotel Crystal Brook

After departing “Marv” and Moonta we headed on to South Australian Royal #4: the Royal Hotel Crystal Brook.

Crystal Brook is a fairly small town and as we pulled in we could see the Royal rising up behind some of the lower buildings. Anticipation started to grow that we might be in store for another unexpected epic Royal in the vein of Denman. When we pulled up in front of it, however, it was a bit more subdued than it had first appeared. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a cool looking old school sandstone Royal. Still good sized and still pretty nice looking, just not quite as grand as we thought it might have been on first glance.

The first thing we noticed walking in the door was a sign indicating that the pub was under new management. That can be a good thing or bad thing. So with optimism, we walked in the front door. The place was pretty empty, but being early afternoon on a weekday, that wasn’t overly surprising.

The front bar area is one of those narrow ones with a long corrugated bar with just enough room on the opposite wall for a row of tables. We grabbed the obligatory Coopers pints and headed off for a wander. At the end of that long narrow front bar was a pool table where we very nearly settled so I could show Jordy and Anthony how much better than John I am.

But we wandered on past the kids playroom, through the dining room, with it’s display of mineral specimens and pretty random décor. Eventually we found the beer garden which looked very comfortable and kind of like a mate’s back yard. It also had a feeling like you weren’t exactly sure whether or not you were meant to be out there. So we headed back in and set up shop at one of the tables in the front bar.

In terms of standard pub décor (i.e. stuff on the wall, historical photos of the town, etc), there wasn’t much at all. A brief chat with the barman revealed why. Apparently when the previous owner sold the pub (remember that ‘under new management sign’), they took ALL of the decorations with them. Hence the slightly barren walls. However, what the Royal Hotel Crystal Brook lacked in traditional pub bric-a-brac, it more than made up for in seasonal Halloween decorations. That stuff was everywhere!

And they clearly carried over that decorative flair into their merchandise. John purchased one of the most ornate, over-the-top Royal Hotel caps I’ve ever seen.

All in all, the Royal Hotel Crystal Brook was a decent, but fairly standard country Royal. As we were finishing our pints, a good crowd of local workers started to come in for lunch. And you could get a bit of a glimpse of the decent atmosphere the pub might have on a weekend evening. But we had many km’s to travel so we had to be on our way.

Because just like that, we’d officially had a beer at every Royal Hotel in South Australia. All four of them. So if you know of another (again we’re talking jut “Royal Hotel”, no Royal Exchange, Royal Mail, etc), please let us know and I guess we’ll just have to go back.

Royal Stats

• Town/Suburb: Crystal Brook, SA
• Population: 1,322
• Date Visited: Friday, October 18, 2024
• Visited By: Cory, John, Jordy and Anthony
• Beer Sponsorship on Sign: West End
• Beer Consumed at Pub: Cooper’s
• Price of Schooner of Said Beer: $9.50
• Unique Award: Royal with Best Halloween Decorations
• Tour Progress: 48.2% (67/139)