The Guide Dog, Bevois Valley, Southampton

The Guide Dog has a basic square carpeted open plan bar area with seating that is spaced out, I imagine for the local’s dogs to spread out around the tables. All of the tables were taken with chatting customers during a recent Thursday evening visit, there was a good atmosphere that was helped by the friendly young lady working behind the bar. Thankfully as I approached said bar a gentleman who was sitting in the corner by the drinks chalkboard decided to leave so I had a prime spot to survey the pub, and read the governor’s spreadsheets up on the wall. I counted eleven hand pumps, seven of which were in operation drawing the Eastleigh based Steam Town Brewery’s Stoke, Northern Soul and Steam Stout, Dark Star’s APA, Flower Pot’s Goodens Gold, Burning Sky’s Aurora and my local East Sussex Gun Brewery’s Project Babylon. There are also some exotic beers from over the Channel in a fridge behind the bar. In the rear is the red tile floored Dog House with bench seating around the walls and some repurposed padded mini keg stools. At the rear is access to a small outside area that I would class as the smoking zone. This is a friendly local boozer that any town across the UK would be lucky to have, well worth a visit.

The Guide Dog is a fairly small backstreet alehouse with friendly staff and a decent selection of beers. This was another Southampton pub that I hadn't been to for several years. Back in 2014, I noted down 9 different real ales. These days they are down to 4. Flowerpots Goodens Gold & Pots Bitter & Steam Town Stoke Extra Pale are the regular beers. The guest beer was Red Cat Mr M's Porter. A sign near the door requested that people without reserved tables order their beer from a hatch at the bar. It wasn't immediately clear where exactly this was. I managed to grab a seat at the bar and enjoyed both the porter and the pale. Another pub where the ale range has diminished and also where it seems much quieter than it used to be on matchdays, where I recall customers spilling out onto the pavement at the front. But I still like this pub. The staff are really friendly and are quick to serve thirsty customers.