The Cuckoo, Dunstable

Enjoyed our visit to this large micropub in the old listed town hall building. Cask ales were Leighton Buzzard Restoration and Captain Cook, Tring Ridgeway, and Hornes Triple Goat IPA. Both the beers we sampled were fine.

A two-roomed locals' pub which has a front room air to it. Entering a corridor, a left-hand doorway leads to a pool room with a table covered with also a dartboard and rubber oche and comfy seating. A doorway on the right leads to the bar room: a bare-boarded affair whose bar itself must take up a third of the room's space with sparsely decorated walls (a "Bisset" automatic dart scorer is of note). As I entered, a clutch of locals were seated in a circular fashion facing each other, making me think I'd walked into something. Not so, I was greeted with friendly "Evening"s as I espied what was on offer - 8 stumps - one clipped with Tring Side Pocket - the others each with a metal "number" clip or without. Chalked slates behind the bar explained the numbers, which were all pleasingly local (either Tring, Hornes or Leighton Buzzard). A half of Hornes Triple Goat IPA (5.0%) was in superb shape and a reasonable £1.75 for a half (pints are suitably doubled-up to £3.50). A real cider in the form of Abrahalls Thundering Molly was also available as well as Guinness, Chimay Gold, Frontier Lager and Spitfire Lager on the keg fonts. No music, just the good-natured jousting of the locals of whom I was the youngest by a mile and a half. The joy of pub ticking is you never know what you're going to get, but occasionally you stumble upon a good'un and this is one of those. Well worth a visit. More a micropub in a pub building - right down to the shared toilet out back.