Myrtle Tree, Bristol

Basic small locals boozer, I've been in bigger micropubs. L shaped room with a 1960s-style black and white wall with inlaid wood, office carpet, a fake mahogany early 90s servery, formica furniture from the 70s and a general air mish-mash. Initially lured in by the sign saying Bass for 4 quid - it was off the stillage and decent (NBSS 3). Loud New Wave and Ska pounding out the speakers with a gaggle of somewhat refreshed locals in their early pensionable years shouting at each other - proper Bristolians in that sense and I stood out like a sore thumb despite my previous provenance; I was pretty much allowed to mind my own business though you could tell they were all thinking “who the fck’s this?” So an authentic local’s pub though it certainly won’t suit most. I can see why Alan Winfield gave it a 7.

A small one room pub, very much an old school kind of place with the bulk of the clientele being old boys getting quite animated watching the horse racing on TV, most were drinking Guinness and lager, the cask ale limited to Bass and Doom Bar, though there were two clipped handpumps on the bar the beer was served from stillage behind the bar. I had the Bass and though not really my thing was in good shape. I quite enjoyed my half hour in here but I'm sure the novelty would wear off after a while.

The Myrtle Tree is a small pub that is situated just of a busy road. Once inside there is a small oblong shaped room which runs to the rear,the floor is carpeted and the bar is on the left side. There is bench seating and small stools to the front and on the right side opposite the bar,there are two small tables and stools to the rear. There was one real ale on the bar,which was served from a barrel behind the bar,this was Doom Bar,which went down well. The pub was fairly busy with some old boys in just after 11am. I quite like pubs like this. Pub visited 15/7/2017