Bat & Bee, Hastings

Back in the 1980s the establishment was called Electric Grape before being known as Grape and then more recently Electric Stag. It is now called Virtue, but remains part of Grand Electric which, the very amiable barman informed me, is the name for the collective street level bars that are joined together by an underground club called the Crypt. Sounds a little to Dusk til Dawn for my liking! I popped into Virtue on a recent Friday just after the doors opened at 17:30 so it wasn’t surprising that I was the only customer. This small venue is primarily a cocktail bar so there is a healthy menu of fruit based alcoholic drinks. Thankfully there is also a small keg selection of Stella Cidre, Becks Vier and Hop House 13 Lager which I found quite tasty, but expensive at £4.90 a pint. The cocktail are half price from 17:30 until 20:00 and 22:00 until midnight every day. The food stretches to toasties and panninis. The décor is minimal with some student art for sale on the walls. I found the music to be quite loud and I noted the presence of a piano at the rear on the way to the toilets. Out the front are a couple of tables and some chairs. I had a pleasant chat with the barman, but this isn’t somewhere I would go out of my way to visit again.