The Pot Still, Glasgow

This place is easy enough to miss in passing, but it’s a superb city centre ale house with a fantastic heritage interior that really demands a visit whenever you’re in Glasgow. You enter through a quite brilliant stained-glass porch into a compact bare boarded room with the servery immediately over to the left. The bar has a nice dark wood counter and impressive high bar back with mirrored and stained-glass sections. It also has some really dazzling high shelves which have been used to store various bottles, mainly whisky, and which extend around the front and back walls, requiring a ladder to access them. The ceiling is crossed with attractive filigreed beams and is supported by a few sturdy pillars through the centre of the room. Seating comes mainly in the form of benches and chairs, some organised into semi-private, booth-like forms, with additional seating available in a nice raised rear section under a collection of black and white photos and a few mirrors. Elsewhere, the old photos cover much of the pubs anaglypta lined walls, along with a few bits of breweriana and other interesting odds and ends. The pub was still nice and busy as it approached closing time on a Sunday evening, generating a nice, warm atmosphere in its cosy, slightly cramped confines. The pub seemed to have a Harviestoun’s theme going at the bar, as four of their ales were on – Engine Oil, Veterans, Tracer and Golden Ale – alongside Jaw Brew Drift. I gave the latter a try and received a very easy drinking pint from the cheerful barman. The landlord of another Glasgow pub that I visited the following day, commented that this was his favourite pub in the city for beer and service (other than his own, of course!). This is a great little bolt-hole in the middle of the city which rewards visitors with warm, comfortable surrounds and some top-quality ale. I really liked this place and regretted leaving to the end of a long day in the field, as I probably didn’t do it proper justice. Definitely one to put near the top of any ‘to do’ list for the city.