The Vine Inn, Rugeley

Busy pub with a covered courtyard area accessed from the rear of the pub. It was very busy on our Saturday afternoon visit and on arrival, we were informed that my 8-year-old could not be admitted, due to everybody being outside. This was the only pub not allowing kids of all 10 I visited in Staffordshire. As such, Mrs S took him off to the park, whilst I took a seat and waited to be served. I waited, I waited and I waited. A guy eventually came over and asked if anybody needed service. I shouted across, but instead he went to another couple of guys who had just walked in. After 10-15 minutes of waiting, I had nearly given up and was heading to the exit when I managed to grab the other lady who was serving. The Vine Inn has its own microbrewery. So, I was looking forward to trying their Vanilla Porter. My luck changed, when I was told it was on. The other real ale option was their Centennial. The Vanilla Porter itself was a touch disappointing and I'd downed it in about a third of the time I'd been waiting for it. There were simply insufficient staff for the number of people present. With the Rusty Barrel still not able to open due to the government's restrictions, I was expecting this to be the best open pub in Rugeley. But it ended up very much a disappointment.

The Vine Inn is a decent looking pub that is just round the corner from Ollys Bar. Once inside the pub has a few different rooms,we had a drink in the main bar room which is a fairly large square shaped room,the floor is tiled,the seating is narrow bench type and chairs,there is a separate room to the rear which had a pool table in it plus a room to the left which i did'nt look in. There were three real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Taylor Golden Best which went down very well,the other beers were Bass and Ruddles County. The pub was empty on our Saturday dinner visit and far too quiet with no music or TVs on.

Another fine description from Mr Dragon below. The Vine was relatively quiet on our visit, being a Monday evening, but was enlivened by a couple of attractive young ladies who were clearly carrying on the weekend and on this basis alone The Vine is to be recommended. Only two real ales were on, Bass and Bank's Original. We plumped for the Bass which was very good and prefectly complemented the atmosphere. In a town with apparently few options on the ale front, The Vine is something of a find and is well worth making the effort to seek out. I'd definitely return and would aim to do so later in the week in the hope of more of the same.