The Leopard, Norwich

Facebook page of The Leopard - facebook.com

Facebook page of The Leopard - facebook.com

Away from the main town and on a busy street area but nice and spacious inside, comfortable with friendly service and a sun trap beer garden

A back street corner pub reinvented into a beer destination. Now with two rooms, the counter in the prime spot opposite the entrance in the right hand room, seating in the left. A bit of a mix of styles maybe for a wide ranging appeal. Eight pulls in two sets of four with local stuff, one set is bracketed by repurposed Watneys Red Barrel fonts, now serving rather better keg beers. In between the pulls is a horseshoe of 8 taps with interesting kegs. There’s a long bench under the big front clear windows with a mix of Britannias and other cast iron based tables, by the counter there’s some taller seating. Decor is a range of trade signs and the tongue and groove is green rather than grey. Beers are displayed on blackboards about the place but not really in useful places and above the servery it’s just a sea of information, fortunately it’s just about bottles and cans. The walls of the left hand room are covered in mirrors and pictures, CAMRA awards and stuff.

Corner pub with distinctive facades featuring green-and-white paintwork at ground level and large mural pub sign above the entrance. Less traditional inside that one might expect; opened out at some stage to create a L-shaped layout, with relatively light furniture and decoration. Five real ales available from the two banks of four handpumps, including Mr Winter's Chin on the Bar (£2.00, half) as the 'house' beer.

A very pleasant green and white exterior to this corner pub and the pub sign is replicated in expanded size on the apex above the front door, leaving you in no doubt where you are. Yes it has been modernised internally and the light wood makeover and wooden herringbone flooring does give the U shaped space a bit of a sparse feel. However there is enough breweriana dotted about to give the place a bit of character and I also especially liked the display case with assorted brewery ashtrays glasses and beer bottles, the Yates sign indicating the way to the toilets, the Bateman Brewery barrel end clock, the etched Leopard Freehouse mirror and the two Watney Red Barrel keg dispensers delivering modern craft ales. The bar supports eight hand pumps and an array of keg dispensers, including the two Watney Red barrel ones, and you really shouldn’t have trouble distinguishing between them. But just in case there’s also a large chalk board on the wall opposite the bar as you come in, which clearly details the cask and keg beers available. For the PuG crawl visit these included the five ales detailed by Steve below and seven craft keg products. So if you do choose a keg product when an array of ales are available you cannot really blame the pub for your own schoolboy error. I went for the Kent brewery’s Comfortably Plum Stout cask ale and it was in excellent nick. These were all available in 1/3, 1/2, 2/3 or pint measures and a 3 x 1/3 wooden paddle is also offered. Then there is a second chalk board on the wall between the two bar sections that detail a range of available ciders, which were five for our visit. This can also be done as a double with the nearby Plasterers Arms. The local CAMRA member, who was still with us at this point, was keen for us to take a shortcut path out the back of the pub which delivers you virtually at the Plasterers and was a bit distraught when the bar man informed him that it was currently closed due to building work. However the walking route via Bull Close takes a whole minute to walk and we all agreed the extra 30 seconds caused by the path being closed really want a hardship.

With dark wooden flooring throughout, the Leopard has seating across front windows and an L-shaped bar counter that comes out of rear wall to create two rear areas, seating in the left and standing in the right service area. The two banks of four hand pumps were drawing Howling Hops Brewery’s Tropical Deluxe, Kent brewery’s Comfortably Plum Stout, Derby Brewing’s Mercia, Black Iris Brewery’s Till the Bitter End and Mr Winter’s Chin on Bar. Two hand pumps were unused and one was reverse clipped. Craft keg was also available during a recent Friday afternoon visit. The service was friendly and there was a good atmosphere. Worth a look.