Brewhouse & Kitchen, Bristol

This is a fairly large brewpub from the ever-expanding Brewhouse & Kitchen pub chain. The pub has a large, open-plan, single room interior with smart floorboards lined with a few tile and stone walkways. Lots of tables and chairs fill the space over to the right of the entrance and on the raised seating areas to either side of the front door. The left hand side of the room mainly has high tables and stools, some screened behind some low partitioning panels with various pipes, lamps and other such bits stuck to them. The servery is to the rear and has a simple wood plank counter with a metal top and a bare brick and white tile bar back. Some nice light shades made from old beer bottles hang over the bar and the brewery is visible over to the left hand end of the bar, in front of a nice glazed tile wall. Elsewhere, decor includes old suitcases, stuck to the wall with a ‘window’ cut into the side so that they can act as display cases for various random items, shelving units holding a collection of stuffed animals, old soda fountains, bottles and tankards, a TV screen which remained off throughout my stay and a Brewhouse & Kitchen merchandise display. I’d seen a few of this brewery’s beers on in the Hillgrove Porter Stores the night before, which struck me as a little unusual, and four were available here – Ameryck, Crockers, Yankee Cabot and HorniGold, with one handpull serving a real cider and another left unclipped. The staff here were really friendly and I managed to get a nice, well kept pint of the Crockers which was an easy drinking drop. I quite liked this branch of this increasingly ubiquitous chain and thought it presented very smartly and was a comfortable spot to settle down for a good session. I’m not sure if this is a popular student neighbourhood, but there seemed to be a much younger demographic than I’ve seen in their other branches, which meant the atmosphere was quite lively and it felt a bit less corporate in its approach than I’ve found with this chain in general. Overall, a good pub for the ale drinker and one I’d be more than happy to return to.

One large room with the copper brewing kit at one end and various low and high tables throughout the rest, with a heavy assortment of decorative clutter. the long bar had an impressive group of handpumps serving their various ales - those sampled were very good. very pleasant visited at a quiet time, but felt it could get busy. Upstairs bar and patio outside not visited.

Brewhouse & Kitchen is situated on cotham hill and just off whiteladies road,the pub has a fairly long frontage. When i first tried to do this pub it was not open and there was what looked like a guided tour of the brewery,when i returned later in the day the pub was packed and it was standing room only. Once inside there is a large single oblong shaped room which runs the width of the pub,the bar faces on entry,the floor is part tiled and bare boarded,the seating is tall tables and chairs to the front and normal tables and chairs in the middle of the room,there is an open brewery to the left. There was a decent choice of real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Horningold,which went down well,the other real ales noted were Yankee Cabot,Crockers and Tasion Ditch. A decent enough pub,just a shame i could not get a seat. Pub visited 4/2/2017

Official site of Brewhouse & Kitchen - www.brewhouseandkitchen.com

Official site of Brewhouse & Kitchen - www.brewhouseandkitchen.com

Now known as The Brewhouse & Kitchen it’s had a complete transformation from it’s previous student and pizza life, and is now part of a small chain that has other pubs in Dorset and London. As it’s name suggests, they brew their own beer and all the available ales were their own on a recent visit, although brewed at the Dorchester outlet since the brewery here is not yet up and running but was due to be commissioned the following day. The basic layout is unchanged with the main bar area being one large open plan room. It’s quite different in character though, with a predominantly wood strip floor along with some slate and mosaic tiling elsewhere. The bar counter is faced with reclaimed wooden boards in various shades and there is some exposed stone walling to the rear. A number of polished copper brewing vessels were off to the left as well as clear tanks with some of the ingredients and a brief explanation of the brewing process. A couple of unusual features were the hanging beer bottles above the bar counter that had been converted in to lamps and an open log fire that was blazing away on a counter top with a copper chimney above. A couple of sofas were down at the opposite end creating something of a snug. Upstairs is the “Cyder and Vinyl Lounge” which pretty much does what it says on the tin. This is a smaller L-shape room with a parquet wood floor, khaki green paintwork and something of a retro feel with black and white photos of the locale on the walls as well as a number of mirrors, a curved wooden bar counter and a wooden art deco style clock above the bar. At the end of the bar counter was a turntable and there were a couple of boxes of records nearby for you to peruse. Helpfully the cover for the album that was currently playing was displayed on a board. As it’s name suggests, this is very much for apple lovers and there was no draught beer available here. The menu offered a good choice of pub grub options such as pork belly, chilli con carne, cod & chips, beef & ale pie, etc., as well as a few burgers, and most of the main courses were priced around the £9/£10 mark. I opted for the classic house burger with an extra topping of bacon and cheddar, and this was pretty good on the whole. Service was a little slow, but the manager was very switched on and on noticing that we hadn’t had our food chased it up with the kitchen. It arrived shortly afterwards. It would also have been nice to had had, or asked if we wanted any condiments. There wasn’t even any salt and pepper on the tables. Beers on tap were all their own as mentioned previously and many have been given a Bristol related name. On this occasion they consisted of Papa Darth, Yankee Cabot, Charlatan and Judge Jeffreys. Several more keg options were chalked up on a board and dispensed from numbered taps on the back wall as seems to be the vogue in many craft beer bars these days. Ciders downstairs were Aspall’s Suffolk, Mortimer’s Orchard and Harry’s Somerset cider whilst the upstairs bar added Ernie Boy’s cider, Twisted Misty, Dorset Sunshine and Sheppy’s Raspberry. All in all, a great pub and well worth checking out.