First In Last Out, Hastings

Small pub on old High Street, with an octagonal fire place in the middle of the room and I assume is just for effect. Carpeted, mainly booth seating & artexed walls. Cosy enough feel. FILO beers, but served rather warm

In the Old Town area of Hastings, a short walk inland from the seafront promenade, is The First In, Last Out, probably one of the best known real ale pubs in this part of Sussex. As we reach the pub after a short gradual uphill climb, we see a sign outside proudly proclaiming “real ale brewed on the premises”, although I understand that, although the FILO Brewery was born here in 1985, it relocated to more suitable premises several hundred yards away up the road in 2011. The building housing the pub apparently dates back to the 1500’s although you wouldn’t know it from looking at the rather unremarkable exterior – nor would you realise it was a former Charrington’s house. Inside, we find a smallish single room pub with a traditional wooden bar servery on the right hand side, opposite which are a number of seating booths created by high backed settles and intended for groups of either 4 or 6. It’s a pleasant, but rather unremarkable interior with something of a slightly old fashioned feel. A large hooded fireplace near the middle of the room reduces the available space somewhat. There’s no TV’s or fruit machines. Frosted front windows help create quite a cosy feel. A fine collection of CAMRA and other stickers on these windows bear testimony to the pub’s achievements over the years. A larger more modern room at the back, accessed through a corridor, provides additional space for diners and doubles up as a function room On my early April Saturday lunchtime visit, the pub was dominated by diners, enjoying the well regarded home cooked food and, like other drinkers, I felt more comfortable occupying a stool at the bar. Six beers were on – Dark Star Hophead plus as many as 5 different home brewed FILO beers. All beers sampled by me ( Crofters, Churches and Cardinal Sussex Porter at £ 3.00p, £ 3.20p and £ 3.40p respectively ) were in excellent form and I was rather surprised therefore to see that the Hophead appeared to sell better than the FILO brews. The pub has been a CAMRA Good Beer Guide regular for a long time now. The pub offers live music on Tuesdays and Thursdays and, on my early April visit, was advertising forthcoming beer festivals for Easter and May Day. Well worth seeking out when in the area, but, if you’re not dining, you might want to pick carefully what time of day you call in.

Notable in ale circles for the on-site brewery, half a dozen pumps dispense the range of FILO beers. There's also a cider keg on the bar and the usual lager offerings. It may just have been the mid-afternoon time that I visited, but I struggled to enthuse about this one. It's obviously popular, though, winning awards, and with a regular crowd. I think I'll have to arrange an evening visit to see the place a little livelier.