Basement 85, Chester

Very smart and modern cellar bar with lots of nooks and crannies. It's down a few steps from the road and then down another couple of steps into the main bar area. An eclectic mix of furniture, with a couple of sofas, but mainly dining tables and chairs. The bar billiards table had gone sadly. 4 cask ales available on the bar, one is always from Big Hand and the others from near and far. I had several pints in here over our two days in Chester and all were in good nick. Ms CAMRA tried several of the wines and was impressed as well. We'll be calling in here again next time we're in Chester, especially if we're staying at the Holiday Inn just down the road.

Big Hand Alehouse is a cellar bar found down a few steps from the street so there is no disabled access. Next to the entrance is a water station for our four-legged friends who are more than welcome. The interior consists of a front bar area with counter on the left wall that faces high tables. At the rear are another couple of seating areas and bar billiards. There are no televisions, but there was some background music playing. The bar is stocked with premium keg and supports eight handpumps. These were drawing Big Hand Brewery’s Little Monkey, Milestone’s Eagle APA, Stringer’s Blonde, Bristol Beer Factory’s Milk Stout, Cocksure’s P’Ale, Peerless Brewing’s Peerless alongside Ascension’s Shimmy Cider and Snails Bank Orchard Dry Cider. Various pies are available from the Pieminster menu, pie and mash for £7.95 seems very reasonable to me. This place is much bigger than the outside suggests. The friendly barman informed me that they opened back in August last year. I was the only customer during a recent Tuesday afternoon visit, I am sure it gets much busier in the evenings.

Modern subterranean cellar bar. The main room has a curved ceiling and plank panel walls, to the right is more of a lounge effort. Off left is a bagatelle table which was good to see. There was an oddly overpowering smell of joss sticks mixed with Lynx Africa inside which didn’t appeal. A very friendly welcome at the bar where eight pumps all on with Fewer Big Hand beers than you’d expect from their, err, brewery tap - just three! My half of their Red was an NBSS 3. Guest beers were Farmageddon Gold (NBSS 3.5), Grey Trees, Hophurst and Mobberley as well as a decent set of kegs. To compound the bizarreness of a brewery tap not pushing the company’s produce, we noted that none of the Big Hand beers were available in bottles! A bit of an odd one, really.

Saturday evening visit. Much more spacious inside than I expected. 8 hand pulls at the bar, one of which was off, three were by Big Hand and two were ciders. I had the Pendragon by Big Hand which was quite nice. Service was friendly. I noticed they do food, the menu seems to be various pies - pie and gravy for £6.50, pie, gravy and mash £7.95 and pie, mash peas and gravy for £8.95. Definitely worth a visit.