Olde Trout Tavern, Southend-On-Sea

An alehouse of sorts, although looking a bit more like a café at the front (and a fish and chips shops from a distance). Perhaps twice the size of a typical micro-pub at ground-floor level, but there's also an upstairs room by the look of things. The 'house' Trout Ale from Wantsum, Greene King's London Glory and Golden Fez from Mighty Oak (£4.30) plus a Snails Bank cider available from the four handpumps. Thankfully my beer was in better shape than the atmosphere, which was very flat on a Sunday afternoon.

Quite light and bright and full of life. Not necessarily a traditional pub (very much feels like a shop or restaurant conversion) and is fairly plain but perfectly acceptable, with further seating upstairs. At the bar were three cask ales and a cider. They do jugs of beer so I slipstreamed behind one just out, meaning another excellent pint of George's Brewery, this time the Wallasea (fair to say that I was getting a taste for their old skool bitters by now) which shook the Richter scale at NBSS 4.5 - so well-worth the GBG slot. 7.5

Stone flagged boozer on London Road with the emphasis on the 3 real ales & traditional food. Almost bistro like its a nice place for a pint of beer.

The name of the pub could be a bit disingenuous as I'm pretty sure it was never an original pub but probably a shop conversion. Apparently the name is a reference to the landlady who despite the derogatory term agreed to go along with it. As can be seen from the pictures it was formerly Bar 56. Inside it is a modern styled bar with a paved floor and I believe a restaurant / function room upstairs. They have a genuine house beer brewed by George's / Hop Monster of Wakering called Trout Ale. Many of these "house" beers are just rebadged rubbish so it's good to see a proper one. On my visit there were only two other beers on and a cider with one pump unclipped. The two beers were Theakston's Paradise and Brain's Final Whistle. I went for the Paradise (£3.25) which was in good nick but somewhat cold. The owners used to run a place called the Cork and Cheese which if I remember correctly was an underground bar somewhere near Southend Victoria. There is a poster on one of the walls for the old venue. It is GBG 2014 listed.