BSB, Bristol

As described below, though the clientele when we visited were pushing the ‘sports’ tag a bit, as most of them were females with children, none of whom have been anywhere near a sporting activity for some time. Said females were pushing multiple courses of junk food onto their unfortunately doomed offspring, seemingly unaware of any nutritional concepts. We could see the temptation, though, as the aroma of freshly cooked pizza was rather enticing. No real ale, so the choices were Coors, Prahva, Guinness, Thatcher’s Gold and Haze, Carling and Staropramen. There are better options nearby.

This is not really your traditional pub, but a bit of a cross between a sports bar and a late night music venue, although there is some outside seating alongside the docks which would be a pleasant spot in the warmer weather. It’s pretty much all one open plan space with an oval bar counter at it’s centre. Decor wise it’s fairly nondescript with white painted wood panelling on the ceiling, and a mixture of exposed brickwork and deep red paintwork on the walls. There was some mosaic tiling on the floor around the bar and globe lamps hanging from the ceiling. There is what might loosely be described as a small snug to one end with some armchairs, and a raised platform with wooden strip flooring at the other end. Three plasmas were on the wall at this end, along with three others dotted around elsewhere, all showing the darts. A DJ booth was in one corner and there was a glitter ball on the ceiling as well as various lighting effects. One of these put out moving pinpricks of light that looked like glitter and it was a little off putting trying to concentrate on what your companion was saying when they had green spots jumping around all over their face. The loos were unusual in that there was an attendant in there with a wide array of lotions for you to use and he made a half hearted attempt to hand these to you although in reality he was more interested in chatting on his mobile phone. Unfortunately there were no real ales on, just keg John Smiths. Ciders were Strongbow and Thatcher’s Gold, although the latter was well past it’s best.