The Two Brewers, Whitstable

A decent town pub on the main road in, with limited parking space. It is set back a little from the road from which it separated by a small area of hardstanding. Conversely, there is quite a large back garden. Inside there are 2 main bars. The public bar has a pool table, a gaming machine, wooden floor and a chimney breast with exposed brickwork. The saloon bar has a dartboard and tables for diners. There is aĺso a carpeted anteroom with an additional dartboard, tables for diners and access to the garden as well as an old-style CRT tv mounted high on the wall. The locals seemed like a reasonable bunch, but we found the staff a bit stand-offish. There was a young pub cat who was very attentive and by far the best conversationalist in the place. One of our PuG regulars was called to mind by the jukebox which pleasantly surprised us with a rendition of 'Aqualung'. There was a selection of coffee available, and there were three ales on. I had a pint of Old Dairy's Red Top which was in very good condition and much appreciated. Worth a visit and would make a good place to start or end a Whitstable crawl.

The Two Brewers official site - www.twobrewerswhitstable.co.uk

Situated on the main road away from the town centre, the Two Brewers tends to get overlooked by the regular visitors to town but is in fact little more than an relatively straight forward stroll from the town centre. The pub claims to be the oldest in Whitstable having been converted from a farmhouse to a Coaching Inn in 1692. The original stables can be seen on the left hand side of the car park and note also the windows bearing the name of Flint & Co, a Canterbury based brewery who took over the pub in 1825. Today it is part of the Enterprise group. Inside it is certainly not without its charm albeit the pub has been extended and altered over the years. To the right of the entrance is a quite spacious and non intrusive pool room with TV and its own section of bar with 3 clipped but effectively dummy handpumps. The ceiling beams bring attention to the pub’s “fine wines, cask ales and good food”. The main bar has a cosy traditional country pub style ambience with a large fireplace separating the front from the rear albeit there is an upright piano coving up the fireplace behind. There are a couple of TV’s and a dart board is housed towards the rear. A later extension tacked onto the back of the pub leads to the pub’s crowning glory (when the weather allows), a spacious and well attended beer garden complete with aviary, bat and trap court and the occasional curious feline on my recent visit The beer choice is slightly better (or at least different) than most Whitstable pubs with Adnams, Doom Bar and Cornish Coaster being the choices available on my visit and at £3 for the Coaster, prices were exceptionally good compared to some pubs in town. The landlady was exteremely welcoming and whilst my visit was early in the day and there were only a couple of other punters, I got the impression that it was a well managed and civilized place that would appeal to a good cross section of customers. It it is certainly a place I would try and frequent again on my next jaunt around town.

The Two Brewers official site - www.twobrewerswhitstable.co.uk