Bear & Billet, Chester

One of a number of pubs on Chester’s Lower Bridge Street, inside the city walls, is The Bear and Billet, an attractive black and white timbered building, the type in which Chester seems to specialise. Outside, the seemingly mandatory blue plaque tells us that “this outstanding timber building was originally the town house of the Earl of Shrewsbury and it has been an inn since the 8th century” It’s a three storey 17th century building. Inside, on the ground floor, we find a bareboarded low ceilinged interior with unoriginal looking black beams. There’s a mixture of seating, including some low coffee tables and armchairs and, although there are several traditional wooden settles, there’s an overall impression of a somewhat modernised interior that is not wholly in keeping with the age of the building. There’s 2 upper floors, but these were closed for a private function on my recent early Thursday evening visit. Apparently, over the 3 floors, there’s a total of 5 large screen TV’s. The ground floor bar was pretty busy when I called in, mainly with the after work office crowd who, in typical fashion, had congregated in front of the bar counter, making it more difficult to get served than was necessary. An area at the back of the pub was showing the Young Boys v Liverpool Europa League Match to a smaller, but noisy, group of lads. Despite Thursday evening being “Grill Night” between 5 and 9 pm, there didn’t appear to be any takers. The Bear and Billet is an Okells pub with 6 pumps, one for cider. Beers on were Weetwood Cheshire Cat, Beartown Ginger Bear, Liverpool Craft Beer Co American IPA and 2 Okells beers – Bitter and IPA. Serving staff appeared noticeably off the pace, but my Okells IPA was in good nick. The pub is listed in the CAMRA 2012 Good Beer Guide. The pub was advertising its own Oktoberfest Beer Festival from Sept 22 to Oct 6 featuring German lagers and food. Flyers advertised that guest ales would be reduced to £ 2.75p per pit on Fridays from 5-9pm ( which seems odd – that’s when you might expect the pub to be at its busiest ). I suspect that I just came in at a bad time, but I didn’t particularly take to this pub much at all.

What an excellent pub, has to be on your list when visiting Chester. Friendly staff and regulars, the food served on our visit was the pie of the day. Six ales on handpump, I went for the Titanic Iceberg, Ilkley Ruby Cascade. Defo will return.