The Fly, Liverpool

Refreshed and renovated with a brighter paint job, new furniture and a new menu. They're also doing 1/3s & 2/3s of a pint but it's the same outstanding service and great beer. There's a slight re-branding with a Liverpool Born & Bread slogan, 1927 is emphasised as well. For my money the best pub in the city centre.

This is a large Okell’s pub that has been converted from a former bakery. The pub has a fairly open feel with the bar counter running down the right hand wall leaving a decent amount of space for vertical drinking, although the room is broken up by a few partitions and the odd stone archway. There’s a good deal of seating as well, mostly in the form of standard tables and chairs plus a few banquettes, with each corner of the pub having a raised seating area including one to the rear right which bizarrely includes an old church pulpit. The mosaic floor and nice wood panelled walls give the place more of a traditional feel when it might have been easy for the place to end up looking like a bit of a drinking barn. The bar back is particularly impressive with plenty of glasswork and a great number of bottles along its not inconsiderable length, as well as a few rugby shirts and a rugby ball. There is a second bar upstairs but this was closed on our midweek visit. The Okell’s pubs I’ve been to haven’t really excelled in pushing their own beers and this place was no different, with just Okell’s Bitter available from their range, alongside Lancaster Black, Newman Bronze Beaver, Wapping Baggy Wrinkle Bitter, Brains SA and Salopian Oracle. I gave the Lancaster Black a try and thought it was a really good pint. The pub seemed to be well set up and has a broad appeal judging by the mix of customers in on a Thursday night. One of several fine pubs in the area and certainly worth spending a bit of time in.

Have to say apart from the fab interior, good choice of beers, and pulpit, the staff here still come first in my rating as they are friendly and on the ball. A very professional bunch of people and service with a smile and good manners. I enjoyed the Wapping Baggy Wrinkle Bitter. Will defo call again.

An impressive conversion by Okells into a leading real ale pub,there is a beautiful marble bar top which runs most of the length of the right hand wall.There were 8 handpumps with many microbrewery offerings as well as a few from Okells,a much better range than available at the other Okell houses in the city.My Salopian Oracle was in top form,and really this pub deserves a longer stay than my brief crawl visit.I particularly liked the raised sections at the rear of what is a large ,open interior.There were a good number of barstaff around which mean efficient service even at a peak time like 6pm Friday evening.Another must visit pub in Liverpool.