Royal Hotel Grong Grong

After departing our first ever surprise Royal in Coolamon, the Tour rolled on to the next scheduled stop, the Royal Hotel Grong Grong.

Most exciting of all is that the Royal Hotel Grong Grong officially marked our half-century. That’s right, we have now hit 50(!) Royal Hotels since we started with Adelong all the way back in 2022. To get to 50 Royals we have driven over 7,250 km and spent over 90 hours in the car together. And somehow John and I are still mates. Although there are still 84 more Royals to go…

As for the Royal Hotel Grong Grong, it certainly looks the part from the outside. It’s got that cool classic old school, but well looked after and done up a bit look.

The inside was pretty cool as well. For my money it veers just a little bit too far towards the overly-done-up end of the spectrum. But it’s not a bad pub by any means. We more than happily stuck around for a couple of beers. Plus there some good was merch, which is always a big plus in our eyes.

The whole space was pretty schmick. Plenty of seating both at long tables and up at the bar. The beer selection was a little bit lacking, even for a country Royal. But it certainly wasn’t the worst we’ve seen (or will see, I’m sure).

Plus some interesting and unique décor, pool table, and dart board all certainly helped the cause.

Plus there was a cool beer garden area as well. We might have set up shop out there had it not been such a hot day. Also, there were apparently some inherent dangers involved in getting to said beer garden.

What there was not, unfortunately, was an open kitchen. As alluded to in the previous post, I successfully convinced everyone to push on to the next pub before getting lunch. And that was on me for insufficient research. But upon arriving, we discovered that we had to settle for three bags of chips. There may have been a little bit of jerky. I’m not 100% sure. But the guys were kind enough to just give me dirty stares rather than any outright verbal abuse. That would come later in the weekend.

But overall, the Royal Hotel Grong Grong was a pretty good Royal. I do feel like it went just a little too far on the fancy-up at the cost of a little bit of character. But it wasn’t blatant or way too far over the top. And if you’re passing through, I would still definitely recommend a stop.

Royal Stats

• Town/Suburb: Grong Grong, NSW
• Population: 250
• Date Visited: Friday, February 9, 2024
• Visited By: Cory, John, Jase, and Bert
• Beer Sponsorship on Sign: None
• Beer Consumed at Pub: Great Northern
• Price of Schooner of Said Beer: $7.00
• Unique Award: Classiest Royal Nudity
• Tour Progress: 37.3% (50/134)