The Brown Bear, Ware

Taken over by Buntingford Brewery ,expect to see at least three of their real ales from the four handpumps at the bar in this Tudor era pub.

The Brown Bear is Braughing’s oldest surviving pub. In fact it is one of the oldest buildings in the village, and a Grade II* listed building. Inside it is a three room set up. Both the snug lounge and bar are full of character with large open stone fireplaces and low exposed ceiling beams, and then there is a 20 seat restaurant section to the back with table service. Both the snug lounge and bar have their own serving areas and there are two hand pumps in the bar and three in the Snug. Usual GK suspects are available (IPA, Abbots and St Edmunds on my last visit) and usually one guest beer. The bar area is more set up as a public bar and is somewhat dominated by a pool table, and also has darts and sports TV. So the Sung bar is a better place for a beer but is the smaller of the two. The food menu is again fairly extensive and tends to be more aligned to home-cooked pub food than the other two pubs in the village. There is some seating to the front of the pub, but it also benefits from having a large garden area out back.