The Mucky Duck, Harrogate

Once again OB has described the pub fully below. I think that this one is rather more minimalist than the other MTT pubs I've been in. Good range of beers on the bar but unusually for this pubco the staff weren't very good. It looked like they might have been going through a change of shift but this shouldn't detract from serving customers. The beer was well kept but the pub simply didn't feel comfortable. The worst of the chain in our opinion. This pub is managed by the same guy who also manages The Mitre in Knaresborough. I suspect he was there when we called in here.

Previously the Black Swan this pub has been taken over and renovated by the superlative PubCo; Market Town Taverns, who also own the Old Bell in Harrogate. Customers of MTTs other pubs will recognise the house style in the minimalist light coloured walls, light wood furniture, booth seating and european brewery adverts. They will also recognise the outstanding quality and choice of UK microbrewery beers and less widely available european beers. There are 8 handpulls, on my visit all but one was serving a Yorkshire brewed beer, and eight keg taps with a mix of European and British beers. There is also a reasonably varied wine list and range of bottled beers and ciders from Europe, Australia and the USA. Although there is a consistent house style each pub has its own character and the Swan has been renovated to produce less of the open spaces of other places, I would guess due to constraits of supporting walls. The bar is at the back right hand corner, it is L shaped with two short faces which are a little hatch-like and allow a little too much scope for bar blockers even though there are no bar-stools. In front of the bar to the right is a seating area with booths of facing settles and a few small round tables with stools, the left half of the pub is slightly larger as the bar does not intrude into this part, and it is furnished in a similar manner. The staff, as is usual for MTT, were very slick and on the ball, the customers a mix of beer geek types and some of Harrogate's burgeoning middle classes. There is, apparently, a smoking area to the rear which thankfully removes the smokers from the front doorstep.