Needle & Pin, Loughborough

Pub SignMan left this review about Needle & Pin

This is a compact shop converted micro pub with an excellent town centre location, handy for the shopping centre. The ground floor room has a brick tile floor through a fairly narrow space, made even more narrow by the positioning of a staircase along the right-hand wall. Seating is limited to a small row of high tables, but with no stools in support, which means everyone sits along the same side of the table, all facing the same direction. The bar is located in the slightly raised rear part of the room, with a tidy brick counter and basic bar back squeezed into the left-hand corner. A few fridges stand opposite and are full of bottles and cans should the cask range not be to your liking. The walls have been decorated with various railway themed items, despite the station being quite some distance from this part of town, whilst each table has an old spirit bottle on it, with fairy lights inside. The aforementioned staircase leads up to an overspill seating area on the first floor, but there was no need to explore with only one other couple in on my early evening visit. A sign outside explained that the upper room can also be hired for private functions of between 18-30 people and that the room has a record player with over 400 albums to pick from.
On the bar, three of the four handpulls were in action, dispensing North Riding Phoenix Mild and Walker Down The Aisle, plus Thornbridge Lord Marples. I was served by a very friendly barmaid who took time to chat to all her customers, and the Mild was in excellent condition.
This place had a bit of character to it, which isn’t always a given for such shop converted operations. It felt a bit odd having everyone face the same direction, but perhaps the upper room would have had a better layout. I liked this one and thought it was a sound addition to the town’s pub scene.

On 9^th May 2023 - rating: 7
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