The Bottle of Sauce, Cheltenham

A stripped out barn like place, looks a bit like it’s been on fire or had a bad restoration. Lots of exposed air-con type stuff, no plaster or ceiling, lumps of tin on the walls behind the counter with rusty iron shelves in front. The inevitable Edison lamps are there but hiding in old acid carbouys strung up over the counter. It’s a tongue & groove counter with four pulls, a cider and a weak Arkells bitter on, 12 kegs taps on a bit of white tiled bar back, they are listed on a shiny bit of copper above. I discovered the table was cast iron when my phone cover closure magnet stuck to it. One big L shaped room with a side room and a courtyard under cover. I thought it pretty dreadful but someone might love it. Apparently owned or rented by the Dodo Pub Co, which explains the neon dodo sign in the bar. Cask Marque rated for now and noodling plumbing in the gents.

A prominent and good sized street corner pub, it’s located in the back streets a short distance away from Cheltenham’s town centre, but is certainly worth taking a short stroll if you want a little more relaxed ambience than you’ll find in many of the high street establishments. Internally it consists a large and high ceilinged L-shaped room with rough brickwork on the front and side walls and dark green paintwork elsewhere. The ceiling boards have been removed at some point leaving the bare rafters on display, which does perhaps make a more interesting feature. The flooring is sanded wooden boards and there are quite large, but high, windows on two sides giving a light and airy feel. A notice board displayed an array of forthcoming events including a book club, yard sale and clothes swap party. Whether you bring clothes along to swap or swap what you’re wearing with other customers, I’m not sure. A smaller room at the rear is perhaps a little cosier, with blue paintwork on the walls as well as a large painted rabbit, a book shelf and padded bench seating. A small selection of nuts, cakes and various flavours of popcorn were displayed on the bar counter. Cask ales were all from Arkell’s with their Hoperation, Moon Light and Wiltshire Gold. A few further “craft ale” options were available from taps mounted on the wall behind the bar, with the listing being displayed on a large copper plate mounted on the wall. Ciders meanwhile were Stowford Press and Cotswold Cider Co’s Yellow Hammer. All in all, a decent enough pub and one I’d happily return to when I had a little more time to enjoy it.