No Such Place, N1

http://thenorthpolepub.co.uk/

The North Pole has reinvented itself since the review below, swapping gastro pub for craft beer bar. The pub’s layout was a bit baffling, seeming to be very wide and shallow, although on reflection this may be because it is a narrow, wedge shape. Either way, you enter to a broad main bar with muted lighting, light coloured walls and plenty of dark wood. There is minimal seating here, but this is compensated for with a raised seating area to the left of the front door and an open space to the right with some standard seating in front of the kitchen serving window. A model plane hung from the ceiling in this room, but otherwise the décor was fairly modest. An archway led through to a third seating area at the front of the pub, which had large windows looking out to the street. To reach this room, you pass a small recess with a single table fitting snugly inside it whilst an upright piano stands opposite. Underneath the raised seating area on the left side of the pub, stairs lead down to a very dark games room where you can play space invaders, pinball, some old one armed bandits and a selection of board games, but there was no sign of the bar billiards table advertised on various posters dotted around the pub. There are some fine pews down here, but the gloom didn’t make it an appealing place to relax unless you wanted to partake in any of the games. At the rear of the pub there is a partially covered decked garden which has enough room for a few picnic tables. Music played throughout my stay at a reasonable volume and there was a nice early evening buzz about the place as it started to fill up a bit. And so to the beer. A handsome row of hand pumps promised much, but three pumps had ‘Coming Soon’ tags on them (Oakham, Moorhouse and XT), whilst three more were dispensing Thirsty Cross Red Cider, Gwynt y Ddraig Happy Daze Cider and Ross on Wye Farmhouse Perry. Even so, I was still left with a decent choice from Triple fff Moondance, East London Brewery Quadrant Oatmeal Stout, Redemption Fellowship Porter and Arbor Riwaka, all priced at £3.50. I gave the Oatmeal Stout a try and thought it was outstanding. In addition there are three key keg fonts and ten or so regular keg taps all offering unusual beers from the UK, Germany, Belgium and the US and costing on average around £5.00 a pint. Menus detail bottled beers and blackboards explain the availability of take aways and four pint pitchers, as well as positively encouraging you to ask for tasters if you’re unsure which beer to pick. I didn’t see a food menu, but the plates that came out of the kitchen looked very good. For a craft beer bar, this place still feels very much like a pub and certainly has more character than many other bars of this nature. I enjoyed my stay here and I would gladly make a bit of effort to return again in the future.