Bottom's Rest, Hove

Decided I needed to investigate a different pub on this visit to Brighton & Hove, so I popped into The Bottom's Rest hidden away in Lower Market Street. Internally it's bare-boarded with simple wooden tables. Seating is school-style wooden chairs, stools and padded benches against the walls. Just one pump of the 3 was clipped up, this offering Harvey's. It was a tricky pour, but settled perfectly clear. I decided against Neck Oil, Punk IPA and Pravha from the tap selection. The manager was chatty and happy to describe the complexities of cellaring the Sussex Best. A relaxing pit-stop then, which I'd be happy to return to, particularly if at an event at The Old Market just a few minutes away.

I visited the Conqueror on Tuesday evening last week and found a friendly L shaped pub with basic décor. There is a dartboard to the left hand side of the bar, but there was lots of furniture on the oche which would be difficult to move out of the way for a game. To the right of the bar is more seating and a flame effect gas fire which was used alongside candles which were in spirit bottles on every table to generate some light. This isn’t a place I would go of an evening to try and read a newspaper. There are two televisions that were turned off and I didn’t see any Sky Sports advertisements. There was some random background music playing and the weekly open mic night is advertised on Mondays from 20:00. I found the woman that was pulling the pints to be nice enough and there are two hand pumps that were drawing Bombardier and Brakspear Bitter. There is also a standard draught range alongside Amstel. This is a reasonable pub, but I wouldn’t make an effort to return.