The Crafty One, Ilkeston

Fairly spartan bottle shop and bar, bottles and can off sales to the right, craft bar to left seating to the extreme left. The rear by the counter and the shop are on a higher floor level, the left hand seating area is at street level. Minimalist décor of a light grey paint job, with a laminate floor. It’s furnished with scaffolding and thick board tables. Two pulls with today; a Howling Hops Beer and one from Brew York, keg wise there are two solos, a double T-bar and six taps on back wall, a blackboard to the left of the counter has the choices, wines, spirits and snacks are also available. The shop portion has an excellent choice of bottles and cans. Not far from the Burnt Pig and Spanish Bar, it makes part of a strongly contrasting trio.

Spacious, modern craft beer bar set across three notional rooms, although they all merge into one due to the way the pub has been opened out at the front. The pub is bare boarded throughout, with the servery positioned to the rear of the central ‘room’. The bar has a rough timber fronted counter with the pub’s name spelled out across it, whilst the bar back is dominated by the row of keg taps and a TV screen to one side was showing muted live football and a beer board on the opposite side lists the full tap selection. There’s just the one table with comfy high-backed chairs in this central space, but many more of the same can be found in the left-hand space along with a drinking ledge and high stools which run beneath the side windows. To the right is a Chesterfield sofa and one more table, but this space is otherwise given over to a bottle shop set-up with plenty of shelves full of bottles and cans. Everything has been painted in rather drab shades and sparsely decorated with a few brewery adverts and bits of contemporary décor. Indie tunes played quietly in the background, which I was quite enjoying until a huge group turned up and created so much noise that I could no longer hear it. There were two handpulls in operation, from which I selected a pint of Turning Point Wavelength, which was in reasonable nick, although the pub’s focus is clearly more aimed towards the eight craft keg taps and numerous bottles and cans available from the shop. The barman was very friendly and welcoming and did a good job managing the large group when they descended en masse. This felt like a decent enough craft beer bar, with a good selection of interesting beers, a couple of cask options and some friendly service making up for the rather plain, uninspired interior. It’s far from the best pub in town, but it’s nice to have an option like this, offering something a little different to other nearby pubs, and I was glad I included it on my crawl.

Decent enough place with the bar in the middle and enough room for people to sit down. Four hand pumps and various craft offerings. Bottles and cans in fridges on right hand side.