The Bootlegger, Bath

Re-opened under new ownership and renamed since my previous visit, décor wise it’s largely unchanged with perhaps just some pale blue paintwork replacing the dark wood panelling. It’s not really your traditional pub ambience, but I quite like it. It was surprisingly quiet on a recent Thursday evening visit though, especially since it was the first day of Bath’s popular Christmas market, with just two other tables in use. Presumably the previous incumbents left their pizza oven behind since that is still very much the focus of the food here, with just a couple of pies, burgers and lasagnes as the only other main course options, although there were also some “small plates” or tapas dishes. Pizzas were mostly somewhere around £11, although they were also available as a healthy option which was smaller and included some salad. I went for the Texan Cowboy with BBQ sauce, torn chicken breast, bacon, sweetcorn and red onion and this was a decent pizza and very tasty. None of the three pumps on the bar appeared to be in use, although the drinks menu listed the available cask ales as Doom Bar and Adam Henson’s Rare Breed. Perhaps they were just unlabelled, I’m not sure. The menu also listed a further six craft beers including a couple from Camden, although these were apparently canned rather than keg. Ciders meanwhile were Symonds Founders Reserve and Ashton Press. Overall I quite liked this, although it doesn’t have an especially pubby feel to it. It could perhaps feel more like a restaurant, although I think that would depend on the ratio of drinkers to diners on any particular visit.

A new addition to the Bath pub scene following hot on the heels of their Bristol opening, this is housed in the former “Hole in the Wall” restaurant just at the top of Bath’s main shopping street. The entrance is through a small door next to The Porter on the raised pavement and this leads down a flight of stone steps to ground level. It’s divided in to several different rooms, although all having a similar feel with whitewashed stone walls, some dark wood panelling and a tiled floor. On the whole it’s quite atmospheric with it’s arches, candles and a real coal fire although the downside is that the acoustics can be quite noisy. There were a few small snugs along the front of the pub, one of them just big enough to squeeze in a small table and a couple of chairs. Otherwise the seating was chunky wooden farmhouse tables and benches, plus a few high stools at the bar. The bar counter seemed rather small for the size of the pub, especially considering that it’s also a food order point, and I can see this being a bit of a bottleneck at busier times. There are also a few old cider barrels dotted around. The food offering follows their familiar pizza and pies theme, and although we didn’t eat on this occasion, we have done previously in Bristol and found them to be very good. Here the names have been tweaked to fit in with the locale and included “Great Poultry Street” and “Pump Room Piggy”, although there were also signs saying that they use Chorizo from the Bath Pig Company and I noticed that Bellringer was used in the Steak & Ale pie so it would seem that they’re doing their best to source ingredients locally. Ciders on tap were extensive and included Burrow Hill Somerset Cider, Purbeck’s Dorset Draught, Symonds Founders Reserve, Thatcher’s Copper Press, Bee Sting Pear cider and a trio from Ashridge – Devon Red, Devon Gold and Devon Blush. In addition to this there were a further fifteen boxes racked up on shelving behind the bar. For beer drinkers the options are more limited with just one pump for Abbey Ale’s Bellringer, but this appeared to have run out.