The Cellar Door, Newport

Micropub close to Newport railway station and with fairly limited opening hours, opening just 4 days per week and not until 4 or 5pm on those days. I arrived shortly after opening on a Friday and was the only customer throughout my visit. Although after a quick walk into town and back, I passed by again to find 3 or 4 customers had arrived. The barmaid was very chirpy and singing along to music that was playing. Two real ales on were Electric Bear Mocha The Week & Fine Tuned APA. A couple of ciders were listed on a board to the side of the bar. Both were from Palmers Upland Cyder, but when I ordered the one, it had apparently run out. So, the solitary cider was Cheeky Jackdaw. Craft beers dispensed from taps on a fridge were Electric Bear Mixtape, Misfit Denim Demon & Dark Revolution Hey Mr. DJ. With the cider I wanted off, I chose the Mocha The Week instead, which was probably the best beer I've had in a long time. With decent beer (and probably cider), friendly staff and a clean, welcoming interior, this was easily my favourite pub on a tour of Gwent. I have plenty more pubs to try in Newport, but I doubt I'll find many (if any) better than this one.

The Cellar Door almost overlooks the West end of Newport Rail Station. It's a proper micropub with no music or TVs. It's a fairly typical sized roughly rectangular room with a laminate wood floor and a small bar counter at the rear right. Most of the limited furnishings are low tables and chairs. There is a log burning stove in the centre of the right hand wall which was welcome on a cold day. There's talk on What Pub of a lounge that isn't ready yet. There were just three beers from the three hand pumps. These were Ludlow Black Knight, Pennine Hair Of The Dog and Brecon Copper Beacons. I went for the Black Knight which was in good nick. I also tried two of the local ciders from the boxes stacked behind the bar. All were £3.00. My concern about this place is that it doesn't appear to have a cellar or cold room. I may be wrong about this but couldn't see one. This isn't that important in early December but in a prolonged hot spell could cause big problems. Despite this it seems a decent micropub that has only been going around a month so the clip collection is still quite small.

Micro-pub converted from a former computer shop.