Paten & Co, Stamford

An interesting and attractive building next to All Saints Church. Well, it attracted me anyway - although it had not been on my schedule. I had been expecting some sort of craft bar, but in fact there were a couple of hand pumps, one with a cider from Lilley's and the other having Nene Valley Brewery's White Hart, brewed in honour of 20 years of the Tobie Norris just up the High Street (so I guess this is a sister pub?). My half of NVB White Hart was Very Good (£6.60/pint), though the local who very kindly allowed me to share his table said it was usually better and in his opinion was a little stale. A bit of a dent to my beer scoring prowess, but I'm sure I'll recover soon.

Trendy urban style bar serving craft beer, keg and one cider all displayed on a board behind the bar, a choice of nine taps in all. This place is very pricy where all of the beers just slip over the £6 a pint mark. Estrella was £6.75 a pint and the cheapest beer was Steeple Chase 4.4% at £5.95 a pint. The interior was interesting with a black and white patterned tiled front lounge area, open plan timber ceilings. Old wine boxes hanging down from the ceiling rafters, plus lots of hanging lamps. The food menu looked good and the place was full of diners on our Friday lunchtime visit.