First In Last Out, Hastings

This is a cosy back street pub with its own brewery of the same name. The pub has a carpeted, single room layout with textured plastered walls, large obscured panes in the front windows and the servery along the right-hand wall. Tables and chairs fill the space to the front and also run through the centre of the room, with hard bench booths down the left-hand side. A large retained section of partitioning wall in the centre of the room has passing points on either side and an arch cut through the middle with drinking ledges around it, and helps to break the room up into distinctively separate spaces. There's a large, stone fire pit in the middle of the rear space, with banquette and low stool seating to the right, beyond the end of the bar. The servery has a plain panelled counter, hop-lined canopy with back-lit red panes and a modern, etched glass bar back, with an exposed brick section to one side housing a coffee station. The walls throughout have been covered with traditional paintings, black and white photos, clocks, brassware and other such traditional pubby bits. The in house FILO beers obviously dominate at the bar, with Crofters, Yo Ho Ho, Cardinal (£2.30 a half), Churches and Gold all available on handpull along with Harvey's Sussex Best. I tried the Cardinal, which is the house porter, but found it wasnt a great example of the style. The barman seemed very friendly and there was a good Saturday evening crowd in when I arrived, generating a lively early evening atmosphere. I liked the cosy, traditional feel of this place, which I'd anticipated would be more of a modern-style brewpub, and felt very comfortable settling down for a bit. Sadly, my lasting impression will be of a poor drop of their own beer, which is never a good thing in a taproom and would make me think twice about hurrying back. I'm prepared to accept that I may have just been unlucky though, and would say that the place is worthy of a stop if you're crawling around the Old Town. Date of visit - 21st December 2024

A pub that takes its name from its position at the top of the High Street of the Old Town section of Hastings in that it was the first pub you came to back in the day when you approached the settlement of Hastings from the north and therefore subsequently the last one before you left. A certain Liane Carroll, a Jazz vocalist, pianist and keyboardist, and resident of Hastings, frequently refers to it as a “small drugs town with a fishing problem”. This description certainly fits most of it, but not the old town with its historic houses, quaint shops and very good pubs, of which the FILO is the best and possibly the best pub in Hastings. I certainly didn’t find a better one. Primarily a single room pub, although there is an additional function room / seating area for dining off the corridor to the back, but most of the action takes place in the bar room, with its period décor, comfortable booths and interesting fireplace as described below. All six pumps were in operation for our visit, with the ubiquitous for these parts Harvey’s Sussex Best on one and the FILO Brewery products on the other five. These were Crofters Best Bitter, Old Town Tom Craft Beer, Cardinal Sussex Porter, Gold Premium ale and Churches Pale Ale. We tried the Old Town Tom and The Cardinal Porter and they were both in good condition. As mentioned if there is a better traditional pub in Hastings I didn’t find it (although the Mermaid did run it close), or could not visit it as the Jolly Fisherman doesn’t open on a Monday or Tuesday.

A very decent pub with a very comfortable interior, there were five beers on while I was there, four from FILO and a guest of Harveys Sussex Bitter, the FILO Churches was nice enough. Worth the walk to the top of town.