The Podger, Leeds

Looking like an estate pub it doesn’t disappoint and none the worse for that, nice and busy on a Friday mid afternoon with more mature customers. It’s one long open plan room across the front of the pub with an almost central servery. This is home to a couple of T-bars of the nation’s favourites with two pulls in between. Tetleys cask on one and Leeds Pale on t’other, I swerved the Tetleys on the barmaid’s advice as it “tasted funny”, the Pale was mediocre but not chip worthy, not really a cask beer pub of course in spite of its Cask Marque rating. Wacky carpet and laminate floors, hexagonal tiles round the counter and ordinary wall finishes. Sports on big screens and subdued piped music complete the picture of a standard but nice local pub. The name comes from spanners apparently, see the pub sign.

Very unusual pub name, and I'm none the wiser after visiting early on a Friday evening as the place was heaving and the busy bar staff had no time to chat... Just one of the pair of handpumps was operational, dispensing a decent pint of Tetley's Cask (£3.40), and the reversed clip on the other handle was something from Leeds Brewery. Apart from that, this looks like an unremarkable community local with nondescript furniture and decor, but there is no getting away from the fact that it does what its customers need and they obviously support it well accordingly.