Caskaway, Southampton

A little gem that nestles between larger and more corporate outlets along this pedestrianised side street. We met the owner on our visit, who was proud of his well kept ales. We went for the Triple FFF Old Dray and the Red Cat Mosaic. I really enjoyed the beer in here and would have liked to have stayed longer as the chat was good and the pub had a laid back and relaxed atmosphere.

Opening in the summer of 2016, Caskaway is a simple micropub located in a rather unlikely position on a lively street full of trendy eateries and bars. The venue appears to be a typical shop conversion and has a bare concrete floor with high settles down the left hand wall serving high tables with a few stools on the opposite side. In the front right corner there is a long bench and window sill seat serving a couple of lower tables whilst a drinking ledge to the rear right rounds out the places you can settle down with your pint. The ledge has a series of beer boards above detailing the full range available, whilst cages full of beer bottles can be found beneath and along the back wall. There is no bar as such, just a vaguely demarcated area full of casks on stilage and a wall with the keg taps on it. The toilets are back here, so it's a bit strange to pass though what feels like the servery to get to them. A large model ship stands atop a partitioning screen near the casks and there is a fair bit of seafaring themed decor across the rest of the room including ropes, pulleys, oars, life rings and nautical flags. A small section of pavement has been fenced off outside the front of the pub where some rickety looking benches offer limited al-fresco drinking options, which seemed very popular on a warm and busy Saturday evening visit. There were three cask ales on the boards on this visit, although the blank spaces around them suggested that more casks might be on at other times. Options on this occasion were Stonehenge Danish Dynamite, Andwell Resolute and Vibrant Forest Necropolis. The Resolute was £3.30 a pint and in good shape to boot. Eight keg beers from local and national microbreweries complimented the cask line up and there were nine cider and perry options to pick from as well. A very friendly barmaid took my order and then brought my beer over to me once it had been poured, and this method of service was applied to all customers which I thought was quite a nice touch. In many ways this felt very much like a by-the-numbers micropub, but for me it stood apart from the crowd thanks to a mixed customer base and some top quality service. Like all micros, the focus is on good beer and a sociable atmosphere and it scored pretty well on both these fronts. There are a few good bars at the bottom end of town these days and this is one that's certainly worth a bit of your time.

A typical micropub layout inside with with a slight nautical theme with a few lengths of rope strung randomly here and there, high table and bench seating.Going somewhat against the micropub ethos was the presence of background music, on my visit a Manic Street Preachers album at a sensible level.Bar snacks were available in the form of pork pies and scotch eggs etc. The beer selection was leaning heavily toward keg with 12 choices available in that format including a couple of Craft Lagers and a Spanish Cider,with just three Cask options from Longdog,Itchen Valley and Broken Bridge on gravity dispense. I went keg with a Wild Weather Peach of a Weekend at £2.90 a half,the Cask beers being priced at £3.60 all being sub 4.2%, the kegs all at 5.0% plus.I did note there was a fair wine selection as well. If not completely adhering to micropub rules, its a good addition to central Southampton's pub scene.