Café René, Gloucester

I shall say this only once quite a characterful exterior/interior tucked down an alleyway.

Facebook page of Café René - www.facebook.com

Facebook page of Café René - www.facebook.com

This is an extraordinary pseudo French-ish style Cafe bar which feels like a cellar, with old wine bottles on the walls, but obviously isn't, being located down an alleyway opposite an old church in the centre of Gloucester. The bar offered 3 ales, 2 ciders and 3 craft beers (albeit 1 is Neck Oil, a somewhat less crafty choice these days). An amiable barman and a simple pub food offer, for example the absolute doorstep of a cheese sandwich I was served, just adds to the charm. Terrific!

Quirky. Calls itself ‘le pub’, has wine bottles covering the walls, French posters everywhere. It simply has to be tongue in cheek, since you then reach the bar to be greeted with a choice of gravity real ale, cider and perry. What a brilliant place, thankfully i timed my visit to Gloucester perfectly as this pub only reopened a few days ago. The interior is spacious enough and full of character, outdoor seating is available and food served but it doesn’t dominate the pub at all. Apparently it can be a brilliant raucous night out in normal times, and I can believe it. Some Françoise Hardy would have been nice but the 60s pop/soul music playing was just fine anyway. a must visit!

Tucked away down a small alleyway just off of Gloucester’s main shopping street, the name doesn’t sound particularly inspiring implying something that is more food led and maybe does a couple of bottled beers on the side. This is not the case at all though, and this is very much a proper pub, albeit one with a good sized dining room. It looks to be quite an old building, and with an old church being directly opposite in certainly looks a lot more appealing than the surrounding area. A number of outside tables and chairs would be a nice spot in the warmer weather. Internally it’s quite traditional, with plenty of wooden beams on the ceiling, exposed brick walling and pattered carpet on the floor. A prominent feature as you go in is a large brick well in the middle of the room, and this extends down some considerable depth. A good selection of beer mats were tacked on to the beams nearest the bar and a feature wall had been made out of old wine bottles at either end. As might be inferred from the pub’s name, there is something of a French theme here as many of the pictures and signs on the wall were in French. There was a skylight window in the roof and a projector screen was rolled up in the corner, so presumably they may screen some sporting fixtures. A dining room was off to one side and this looked quite elegant with wooden panelling on the walls and a wine bottle ceiling. Beers were all dispensed from barrels racked up on the end of the bar with no obvious signage showing what they were. However, a chalk board above the bar listed Arbor’s Blue Sky Drinking, Boss Blonde and Grey Trees Mosaic. Ciders were well represented with Stowford Press, Cornish Rattler, Black Rat, Rekorderlig Strawberry & Lime and Orchard Thieves on tap, and in addition to this a board listed the real cider options as Supermoon and Rhino which are both new ones on me. All in all, a quite unexpected find and well worth checking out.