The Fox, E8

The Fox is a large looking corner pub that is fairly close to Haggerston station. Once inside there is a square shaped room which is bare boarded,the bar is up one step,the seating is normal tables and chairs. There was a decent choice of real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Otley O2-Croeso which went down well,the other beers noted were Redemption Rock the Kazbek and one3 from Left Hand Brewery. The pub was quite busy on my Saturday afternoon visit. The background music was crap. I was quite happy having a drink in this pub. Pub visited 11/6/2016

This pub, close to the Haggerston Overground station, was refurbished back in 2012 and repositioned itself as a craft beer house in the process, allowing it to fit in well with the area’s craft beer and brewing scene and making it popular with the local demographic. The pub has a straightforward single room set up, split over two levels with a lower seating area to the front and a slightly raised bar space to the rear. The servery is a fairly non-descript affair, with a strange angular bar back which has been thoughtfully livened up by an attractively presented collection of beer bottles. The room is filled almost entirely with standard tables and chairs, all ranked into formal rows with the sort of efficient use of space you normally see in somewhere like a Wetherspoons. A couple of button backed sofas and armchairs can be found towards the front of the room and there is a small lounge type area in the front left corner which also offers some comfortable looking seating options. Décor is a mixed bag, with the likes of a large set of bison horns and various enamel US brewery signs on display around the bar area and a pump clip collection, Polaroid photots of staff and customers, a few stuffed animals and random breweriana elsewhere. As others have mentioned, there is also the highly unusual sight of a beer vending machine to the front of the pub, although I couldn’t tell if it was working or not, as no-one used it during my stay. The place was full when I arrived on a late Sunday afternoon and proceeded to get even busier as time wore on. I found the ale range to be really tempting and it was difficult to restrict myself to just the one pint. Options on this visit were Weird Beard Decadence Stout, Kent Brewer’s Reserve, Anarchy Urban Assault, Redemption Trinity and Wiper and True Pink Peppercorn Stout, with two real ciders taking up the remaining handpulls. The keg range included predominantly small batch beers from the likes of Kernel, Beavertown, Weird Beard and Partisan – all London based breweries. I tried a pint of the intriguing Pink Peppercorn Stout and thought it was in great shape. I initially found this place a little bit formulaic and was a bit unsure about it, but I quickly settled down and didn’t really want to leave in the end. The beer is excellent, the place has a good buzz about it and the staff were extremely friendly and helpful, making this another must-do Hackney pub.

A large, imposing corner building with some nice architectural touches. The interior is a large open-plan room with small spur off to the left, painted in shades of dark green with a stripped wood floor. Furniture is fairly uniformly laid out and it all feels rather bland and functional though there are at least a few interesting wall posters, including the aforementioned “A Visual Compendium of Notable Haircuts in Popular Music”. Eight pumps at the bar (which is at least given a bit of character) with six ales, one cider (Welsh in origin) and one unclipped. My Marble Choc Stout was in fairly good nick though perhaps I expected a little more sparkle. Notably expensive in here, especially amongst the extensive keg offerings. A nice touch were the branded half pint goblets which I was severely tempted to smuggle out and take home but good manners got the better of me. It’s a decent ale outlet but I couldn’t really get over-excited by it as a drinking venue.

This large corner Victorian pub standing on the Kingsland Road in an area known locally as Haggerston was one that previously didn’t usually warrant a second look as you went past it on a bus up the A10. But now under new management (the same team that run the Howl at the Moon in Hoxton I believe), the Fox has been remodelled to take advantage of two current trends, namely Craft Ale and the yuppification of Hoxton. Now opened up and stripped back internally to one minimalistic large space mainly set to wooden tables with a couple of sofas dotted around the edge, it has an equal focus on food and beer. The provided food menu falls short of being full blown Gastro, but is still pretentious enough to appeal to its target Hoxtonite demographic. And although usually I would steer clear of any place that has Halloumi burger with olive tapenade on the menu, the addition of ‘craft beer house’ applied to the pub name makes it also an interesting place to visit for those not interested in eating. An impressive array of Ale pumps and craft beer taps as previously described and also a decent range of bottled continental beers. The couple of Ales I tried were in good condition and I found myself warming to this place and will definitely pop in again when in the vicinity.

In its current incarnation, The Fox is a craft beer house and gastro pub, serving excellent (but not cheap) beer and interesting, non-traditional bistro-style food. So many beers were on sale – craft and cask – I lost count, but I do remember 3 real ales and 3 ciders. Several good Belgian beers complemented the list. Decent looking food but time on a crawl didn't allow us to eat. Despite the modern theme, it had a great traditional pub feel, although the presence of several bicycles in the bar was a bit enigmatic – maybe an attempt to give it a French flavour. Wood floors, no electronics and a warm welcome combined with the presence of a bunch of mature pub crawlers all added value. I had a pint of Marble Brewery Chocolate Marble, which was a good pint, very moorish but became a bit sickly later on. I shall most definitely return here.