Ritzy Cinema Bar, Brixton, SW2

Not a real pub, but I've been in worse places. Five or six keg offerings, including a decent IPA. Not one to come back to though.

There's no real ale on in here of course, but they did have a couple of keg offerings from local breweries - Brixton Brewery Reliance, and Mondo Dennis Hopper (£2.85 a half). There were other keg beers available, but going for the Dennis Hopper rather than the Estrella was probably a good choice. they had simple menus on the tables on my mid-afternoon midweek visit. A mac n cheese is £5.50 and a pulled pork sandwich is £7, with chips another couple of quid. This is what it says it is - a cinema bar. I was asked at the bar if I was going to watch a film, or a member (presumably a cinema club member?) so maybe I would have got a discount had I been. It comprises a single room with mainly normal tables and chairs crammed in, with a few tall tables/tall stools past the pillars nearer to the bar counter. What I did like about the place is that it had a large entrance from the street, so you could get in there without having to go through a cinema foyer. Everything's modern in here but of course it doesn't pretend to be anything other than a cinema bar. When I was in on Monday afternoon there was a mixed bunch in - coffee/laptop 'workers', nursing mothers and a crying baby, and some young people who seemingly prefer to have their drinks in cinema bars rather than real pubs. Anyway, it's obviously nothing like a pub, but oddly I didn't mind my short visit in here. The bar staff were friendly and helpful, with one seeking advice from a colleague when I asked who brewed the Dennis Hopper, rather than just shrugging shoulders as has happened to me in the past. But it's not the place for a session, but OK for a swift one if wandering around Brixton on a rainy afternoon.