The Park Tavern, Macclesfield

Two room pub with the main bar to the right, loosely traditional in style with eight pulls on the counter and six keg taps on the back wall. One pull had Lilleys cider and the other five with Bollington beers as found by PSM. I won’t repeat his as usual masterful description. The left hand room is a small meeting type room. Beer was good as you’d expect in a brewery owned pub.

Official site of The Park Tavern - park-tavern.co.uk

Official site of The Park Tavern - park-tavern.co.uk

This is quite a smart and tidy taphouse for the local Bollington Brewery, on one of the main roads out of town. The pub has a comfortable two room interior, with the right-hand side occupied by a comfy main bar area with bare boards and a nice two-tone colour scheme on the walls. The bar is down the left side and has a dark wood panelled counter with a matching bar back, that is partly white tiled and has the keg beers listed on a board above. A couple of large tables down the right-hand wall offer banquette and chair seating whilst there are a couple of high tables and stools elsewhere. There's also a raised seating area to the rear with some short banquettes and basic chairs under high dark wood panels with a large collection of ceramics, bottles, books and other such bits along the top and there is a skylight back here as well as a beam lined with hops. A few more seats to the rear left, beyond the end of the bar, round out the seating options, although these are perhaps a bit isolated from the rest of the action. A bookcase opposite the bar has a collection of battered tomes and I was surprised to see some kids in the bar early on a Tuesday evening, seemingly getting some tutoring for their homework. Stairs to the rear lead up to some sort of first floor room that a lot of old folk were heading up to, possibly for a private function, although I didn't venture up there myself, and there's a beer garden out the back. Five Bollington beers occupied the handpulls - Oat Mill Stout, Long Hop, White Nancy, Eastern Nights and Best - whilst five craft keg options rounded out the draught selection. The barman was quite friendly and poured me a pint of the Oat Mill Stout, but then topped it up with a pale ale by mistake and had to start afresh! I think I was hoping for something a bit special from this place, but instead found a perfectly functional pub with some great beer but nothing particularly memorable or out of the ordinary to it. There was a good crowd of locals which helped create a bit of atmosphere and I found the place comfortable and easy to settle.down in, but it wasn't quite the revelatory visit I'd hoped it might be. Still an essential port of call if you find yourself in town though. Date of visit - 16th January 2024

The Park Tavern has a small seating area to the left of the entrance that was empty during my recent early Monday evening visit. Through to the right is the bar area with seating under the front window and high tables up the right wall faced by the serving counter up the left. At the rear is some raised seating and more seating is found around to the left rear. This is a Bollington Brewery pub so five of the eight hand pumps were drawing their Eastern Night, Long hop, White Nancy, Bollington Best and Oatmeal Stout. SiDa Brewery’s Maxonian and Seacider’s Rhubarb were also available with one pump standing unused. I enjoyed the stout, but the barman made a right meal of pouring my half. I ended up with two glasses, one three quarters full and the other a quarter full. In addition to the cask the back bar supports six fonts for five craft keg and Thatcher’s Cider. There’s also a coffee machine on the back bar and a container full of cakes cakes. The kitchen was closed during my visit so I didn’t spot any menus. Out the back is an enclosed beer yard with picnic tables and benches. There is also a cinema room with screenings on Wednesdays and Sundays from 20:00. I’d not heard of any of the advertised films, reckon they must be a bit niche. This place is worth a look, if only to try the Bollington beer.