Rita's Pantry, Redcar

Nice corner bar with good beer and overlooking the beach

A simple one roomed micro, counter at angles on the right with four pulls and three kegs plus a couple of ciders. There are lots of cans in the fridge, it also sells spirits and snacks. Continual back ground music as it's a Teesside style micro. A mix of decor with obviously a few pump clips in evidence, random photos, CAMRA awards, sheet music and random OS maps, on a big wall it’s better if they’re contiguous and properly trimmed - still not my gaff. It maybe not a classic micro but there’s decently kept beer and it’s one of a very, very limited number of places worth visiting in Redcar.

One largish room with the bar to the right. Reasonable selection of real ales means a return is likely if back in the area.

Rita's Pantry is a micropub situated on the seafront at Redcar. Inside it's a single room with the bar on the right, a laminate floor and unusually for a micropub (but not Teesside ones) a prominent TV screen. This was showing a very old episode of the immensely boring Top Gear on Dave. You could tell it was old as Clarkson looked middle-aged and wasn't throwing punches at anyone while the other two looked as though they had just left school. The bar has four hand pumps which had a cider, John Smith's Bitter, Roundhill Dark Ale and Merrie City Atlantic Hop. The John Smith's was jokingly named as something else. I went for the Dark Ale which was great value at £2.70 including the CAMRA discount. TV screens and / or music seem to be prevalent for micropubs in this area. It does go against the guidelines but if that's what their owners and more importantly the punters want then good luck to them.