The Sympathetic Ear, SW2

Situated in an unlikely location a good 15-minute walk South from Brixton station and a similar distance from Herne Hill station, this is a shop converted craft beer bar and bottle shop. Unlike most bottle shops, this place has a very prominent servery and a wider selection of draught beers, making it feel more focussed on their on-sales. The place has a simple single room layout with the bar and fridges to the front and a scruffy seating area at the rear. The bar runs down much of the left-hand wall and has a simple counter front, cinema-style beer boards and a row of taps along the plain bar back. There’s a drinking ledge opposite with a few high stools, but otherwise this bare boarded space is mostly set aside for through traffic. The fridges are also on the right-hand wall and looked to be well stocked with bottles and cans, as a steady stream of punters came and went with their takeouts. One high table with bar stools has been positioned next to the bar but seemed to be occupied with friends of the staff, so regular punters were relegated to a slightly wider rear area with a rough concrete floor and dark painted walls. Two office-style sofas with low tables and matching armchairs , flank a long, high table made from some sort of old storage unit, with high stools around it. This space has plenty of hipster artwork on the walls plus two large French medical diagrams, one of which depicted images of healthy human organs alongside pictures of those taken from an alcoholic – something to ponder as you sup your 12% abv imperial stout. A staircase next to the entrance lead down to a pleasant basement area with four or five more tables and plenty of chairs. More hip modern art lines the walls and there was a huge TV screen showing what looked like the demo of some sort of Mario-Kart game – whether you can play this game or not, I couldn’t fathom out. Decent alternative rock tunes played quietly in the background and there was a nice vibe from a modest mid-week crowd including one group of youngsters who were having a team meeting in the pub. There were around eight or nine craft keg lines to choose from, offering brews from the likes of canopy, Real Ale Company and Wild Weather. I tried the latter’s Maple Latte Stout, which was great and ended up staying longer than intended so that I could try out a couple of the other beers on offer. The staff all seemed quite friendly and I noticed a couple of them were happy to help punters select the right beer from the bewildering selection in the fridges. I’m not normally a fan of these bottle shop craft beer bars, but I thought this one had just about struck the right balance and it seemed like a good place to try a few interesting beers. The provision of proper seating areas, including a separate basement space, means that you don’t feel like your drinking in a shop and this combined with some unusual beers and friendly service, make this somewhere that’s well worth investigating.

Pub and bottleshop.Box shaped and quite basic.Bar to the left and fridges with good selection of beer.8 beers on keg from the tap wall.Expensive I thought .Good beer from Burnt Mill though.Friendly barman.

Official site of The Sympathetic Ear - www.thesympatheticear.co.uk

Official site of The Sympathetic Ear - www.thesympatheticear.co.uk