Nettle & Rye, Clifton Village, Bristol

Renamed, refurbished and recently re-opened, this pub is now run by the same team behind the Naval Volunteer in King Street and the influence from there is clear both in the style of the pub and the craft ale offering behind the bar. It consists of one large, open-plan room downstairs as well as a separate restaurant upstairs, although we did not investigate this. The bar counter has moved from the right hand side to the back since it’s re-opening, but other than that the layout is largely unchanged. Décor wise it’s all very neutral, with pale sandy colour paintwork on the supporting pillars and cream or very pale grey elsewhere. There was some exposed brickwork at the rear and the flooring was a mixture of slate tiling and wood strip. A couple of plasmas were mounted up in the corners at the rear of the pub which seemed slightly out of place perhaps, but fortunately these were not in use on our visit. Seating is mostly high tables and chairs with one large table to the right which would hold at least twelve people, perhaps to encourage conversation with strangers. A couple of beer barrels provided somewhere to rest your pint if you were standing. Food wise, there is a bar menu served downstairs and this consisted off a concise selection of dishes such as burger, fish & chips, steak & chips, etc., and these were mostly priced somewhere around a tenner. A selection of sandwiches is also served at lunch times and there is also, I believe, a separate restaurant menu. As is typical in many of the new breed of “craft beer” venues, although you are presented with a range of eight hand pumps on the bar these were all unlabelled and instead you have to refer to a menu on the wall which listed 20 choices, although these also included a few ciders and at least one lager. Furthermore, it was not immediately obvious which of the ale offerings were keg and which were cask. The friendly (and bearded, naturally) barman informed me that numbers 13 – 20 related to the hand pumps, but with two of these being cider that left six cask ales, which on this occasion were Ilkley Mary Jane, Fyne Ales Jarl, Magic Rock Rapture, Fyne Ales Maverick, Fyne Ales Avalanche and Bristol Beer Factory Milk Stout. Four prices are listed against each beer since one third and two thirds measures are also available. Prices seemed a bit steep with most beers coming in between £4 and £5 a pint, although some were even more than this – I spotted a Ilkley IPA at £5.40. Ciders meanwhile (keg and cask) were Sampford Courtney Traditional Devon Cider, Purbeck Dorset Blush and a duo from the Handmade Cider Company – Thirst Aid and Medium Dry.

Official site of Nettle & Rye - www.nettleandrye.co.uk

Official site of Nettle & Rye - www.nettleandrye.co.uk