The Rectory, Chesterfield

Given its town-centre location, this proved to be an unexpected haven of calm on a Saturday night (but still busy enough). The building looks interesting externally, and the thoroughly refurbished interior offers something too with a mix of traditional side rooms and a more modern bar area. Better still, not only were all eight handpumps in use, but four of these were dispensing Dancing Duck beers (including a good pint of Waddle It Be (£3.70). With a pair of ciders, and a Blue Monkey real ale, the only Marston's cask offering was Pedigree. Amusingly, though, the seven 'craft' taps on the bar-back were actually pouring bog-standard keg beers.

A well-executed and welcome refurbishment of this interesting building beside the church. Once inside, it's hard to believe it's still really Chesterfield. The emphasis is on craft beers and food, but it was all wasted on the guys in front of me at the counter, who just went for bottles of Budweiser. Of the eight hand pumps on the bar, two were ciders, then there were two beers from the Marstons stable (Boondoggle and Pedigree); the second set of four had three local ales: Dancing Duck Waitangi, Fuggle Bunny Russian Rare-Bit (a strange name for what turned out to be an eminently drinkable 5% stout) and Kelham Island Best, and the final Marstons beer, Lancaster Bomber (formerly Thwaites). The back wall has a series of keg spouts, amusingly decorated with inappropriate gauges (sorry, no photo - you'll have to go and see for yourselves) which failed to detract from the fact that they were pretty much all national brands like Guinness and Carling - there are no fonts on the bar counter, which presumably accounts for the Bud drinkers. This re-imagining of the pub is aimed at young, town-centre binge drinkers, I guess, but with an eye for older, more discerning real ale types on quiet afternoons. Nice one!