The Griffin Inn, Bath

Refurbished in 2009 as a comtemporary bar, the Griffin probably hs too much of a pine and chrome feel for my more traditionalist tastes but that doesn’t necessarily mean it should be overlooked for a visit. The interior has 2 rooms, the main bar with a fairly minimal feel with bare floors and plain walls, not unattractive but more of an acquired taste. To the rear up a couple of steps is a separate large room labeled the “BeaufortBar” with some solid looking walls and the pub name prominently displayed in large gold letters. There is a TV and a selection of board games available. One interesting feature is the secure high walled “secret garden” that can be found in the corner of the main bar (but don’t tell anyone I told you) although space is somewhat limited. The 4 hand pumps dispensed a good selection of ales with local micro’s to the fore including Bristol Beer Factory Acer, Cotswold Spring Codrington Codger, Butcombe Bitter and a 4th I couldn’t make out. We certainly no complaints about the service since we entered the pub on a Sunday lunchtime not realizing it was actually closed until 2pm but they were happy to serve us anyway. It may be a little too modern for some but I would certainly recommend it for a couple of pints if passing although I wouldn’t mark it out as an essential stop off.

This is a pretty basic open plan bar with a further larger area to the rear up 4 steps. It’s very clean and tidy both inside and out and has obviously been done up quite recently. 5 handpumps serving Butcombe bitter, London Pride, Kingstone Gold and Wickwar Cotswold Way. They also had a 5th beer which I tried first, it was total sludge, so I can’t even remember what it was supposed to be. It was changed with an apology and I had a Kingstone instead which was very nice. It was very quiet when we went in mid afternoon on a Wednesday, but it was very pleasant.