Alexandra Arts Company, Rugby

There are two doors to this traditional town centre boozer,the lounge is through the middle door while the side door leads to the rear games room and a hidden beer garden.The shed here is home to the Atomic Brewery but as the owners engage in a lot of barrel swapping,you may only find a limited selection of their beers at the bar,just one on my visit.The lounge is L shaped and the bench seating has been refreshed,but it still retains no TV or muzak.There was decent banter among the locals,although it was quiet and the Seven Stars nearby may have diverted some trade.The back bar with it's own bar access had some punters playing pool. The seven handpumps include a real cider and judging by other recent reviews London Pride and Abbeydale Deception appear regulars.The guests rotate to whats been swapped with Atomic,so a beer ticker would appreciate the random nature of what may be available.Worth including on a crawl,but I felt that stopping in here for the one was sufficient for me.

A detached pub fromed from what looks like two Victorian cottages that had been knocked into one, which is why it appears to be slightly curved. The pub is in cream, with some blue paintwork and has a nice beer garden at the back. The pub has a couple of rooms, the first being a smallish L-shaped lounge. This room is in cream, with some red and has fake beams on the walls. There is blue patterned furniture and mixed art on the walls. There is no TV and there was no music. It all feels in need of a freshening-up. At the back there is the Games Room, with pool, darts and skittles, and with a TV showing daytime stuff and jukebox. The room is in red and yellow. The service was fine, the clientele borrowed from Wetherspoons. Beer; usual tap stuff with handpulls that included; Byatt's Phoenix Gold, London Pride, Abbeydale Deception, North Yorks' Cerial Killer and Blakemore's Two Tone and Summit Special (decent). I just couldn't warm to this pub, although i am not sure why.