Cannock:
This is a bit craft bar more than pub, but it reminded me of The Black Isle Bar on a smaller scale, so it gets in.
Craft beer, no cask. Interesting food menu with a bias to pizza. Pleasant staff, OK prices. Liked this far more than I expected to.
Neston, Cheshire:
Related to Elephant Lounge, this is a bar in the centre of Neston, and was a handy place to wait for our Uber. Pleasant staff, similar coffee and craft beer offering to the lounge. Inside is again almost industrial decor, but with a few giveaways of the building’s origin (a NatWest bank, unsurprisingly).
One for the hifi nerds: both Elephant places we visit have sound provided by very nice Monitor Audio Bronze 2 speakers: unusual for a bar to invest in proper hifi gear.
Heswall, Chesire:
Micropub recommended to us by staff at The Red Lion.
Generally a great pub: fantastic choice of cask, keg, and cans/bottles, nice barman, pleasant customers, typical micro atmosphere. The only bit that took the shine off was the arrival of a small child- not a badly behaved one, and, I suspect, the barman’s kid, but the chatter and playing that are inevitable with a small child doesn’t fit a pub atmosphere.
Glasgow:
Another stripped-out craft bar. No cask ale, but a slection of craft bollocks. Food, which was apparently decent (we bumped into colleagues who had eaten there).
Music was on but at a sane volume, the place ws sbusy enough to have a buzz but not rammed.
Morecambe, Lancs:
We’d walked past The Palatine, a pub we’d loved back in 2016, but which was shut in 2021. We walked past because it was really loud and unpleasant sounding, so we dropped in here.
We’re glad we did, and we came back a few times. You’d expect a very young, trendy, overpriced poser bar with “craft” in the name wouldn’t you? What you actually get, at the times we visited at least, is decent music you can talk over, pleasant staff, decent beer at a reasonable price, and if you sit in the window or outside, a view over the bay.
Great beer choice- 3 cask,several keg taps. Decent wine too.
Aberystwyth:
Nice micropub in a backstreet. Huge range of bottled beer, and a mix of keg and cask on tap. Pleasant staff, nice, small courtyard/beer garden at back, which was nice to escape the students on an unseasonably warm October evening (this was the only place in town we went dominated by students in what is a university town). No food, but you can take your own or order in.
Didn’t take to this, despite the absolutely charming owner’s daughter welcoming us in and some very nice craft beer (canned, though). It’s split over 3 levels, and had a huge selection of craft ale and cider, and the owner seemed really nice, though.
Aberystwyth:
In an Aberystwyth back street, this is rightly one of the best-rated pubs in the town; traditional interior, great beer, friendly staff, and a nice place to be. Selection of great cask ale and some of that craft stuff on keg too.
Shrewsbury, Shropshire:
We only sat outside here, but it’s a smart, modern re-doing of an old hotel/pub. It did have a few of the tropes that irrationally annoy me (prices listed as 6.0 instead of £6.00, and inconsistently, for example: trying to make something sound on-trend by shortening the name for another), but it was pleasant sat outside in the sun, the service was fine, the beer was fine, and the prices not ruinously expensive, even if the format was mangled. No cask ale, but decent craft bollocks from Camden, which was fine.
Liverpool:
Just down Lime St, this had a bit of a Micropub feel to it, but adding together all the floors, it’s a bit bigger than that.
Big choice of beer- some craft keg, some cask, some bottles and cans, rather like Beerbohm or The Whippet Inn. Nice staff, excellent beer, and the best music selection I’ve heard in a pub for some years (rock to rockish pop, 70s, 80s, 90s). Green Devil on tap too.