The Bottle of Sauce, Cheltenham

Stripped out corner pub, painted black as well, which would normally be one to avoid, but I needed a recycling option before walking to the station. There are four hand pumps with one cask beer and a still cider. My half of Arkells Belt Driver was very good (NBSS 3.5) but a bit pricey at £5.20/pint, having just arrived from Tewkesbury where such prices are very rare. Nevertheless, this is a decent pub, with an interesting sound track, my good impression no doubt helped by it being a quiet midafternoon.

Having visited on two evenings during the recent Cheltenham Jazz festival I can fully answer Old Boots question to who likes this one. My first visit to The Bottle of Sauce was at a lunchtime, primarily to check it out as it was a venue for free gigs during the Festival ( for those not aware the Jazz Festival is three or four main venues around town where you pay to see the big hitters, then lots of other venues including a Free Tent on the main Montpellier show ground, where you get to see bands for free), and I confess on this lunchtime experience, with not many in, my feeling would have been the same as Old Boots… But then I returned in the evening after dark ! Firstly one key point that all previous reviewers have missed. As well as the main bar room and the additional room to the back of this, if you leave by the door to the right that leads to the outside courtyard area with its bench tables, there is an additional long rectangular room called The Canteen. At the far end is the kitchen but at the near end is a small stage. During the day the room is full of additional bench tables, but on gig nights these are removed and this becomes your live music venue. So I returned when the sun had gone down to find the pub packed with 30 somethings and the main bar area resembled Millennial vertical drinking only and not a seat to be had in the back room and the courtyard. Fortunately these youngsters ( compared to me) were not here for the Jazz and a Latino three piece who had packed out the Free Tent earlier in the day at the main site had plenty of space left in The Canteen for us to slip in and enjoy them in relative comfort, as it was the following evening with another band. On the beer front a few decent Dodo branded craft options for the Millennials and Arkels beers were on the pumps for those after an ale and Hoperation IPA and 3B were available alongside a cider on the third pump and the IPA was a pleasant session pint to sup whilst watching the bands. So this is very much an evening pub attracting a youngish crowd, but agree that during the day it can be a quieter option for a pint and some lunch compared to those pubs in or near the pedestrianised sections of the Cheltenham centre.