The Pharmacie Arms, Leicester

Official site of The Pharmacie Arms - pharmarms.co.uk

Official site of The Pharmacie Arms - pharmarms.co.uk

The last time I was in Syston in 2015, this place did not exist. However, it's now probably the best place for a drink in the town. I have to agree with Quinno that this is more of a bar than a micropub. It may well have been a former shop, but the premises are very large, even with the ground floor bar alone. If you add in the extra space upstairs, it's big even by normal pub standards. The loud music also made it feel more like a bar than the more congenial environment of a micropub. Nevertheless, this is a fascinating place. Real ales and ciders and craft beers are all listed on Untappd. Shipstone's Original & Mild are regulars. Guests were Oakham Citra & Mad Brewer Release The Kraken. At 6.2%, the latter was a porter which I quite enjoyed. Real ciders were all from the Bottle Kicking Cider Company - Medicinal Compound, Pineapple, Peach & Passion Fruit Cider, Cherry & Cranberry Cider & Summer Fruits. Craft beers were Brennan's Irish Stout, Brew York Sim Cit-E & Rhubarbra Streisand, Polly's Amarillo Mosaic India Pale Ale, Cloudwater SoCal, Electric Bear Tondo & Vault City Raspberry Roulade. The interior is fascinating. Walls are lined with medical items including some rather fascinating inventions, as well as dental instruments, prosthetic limbs, advertisements for nipple enlargers and chastity belts and a skeleton sitting on a dentist chair. Seating is around the edge of the room, with a few dentist cabinets to sit at in the centre of the room. Bar staff seemed very friendly, but the owner wasn't quite so amiable, unless you're a regular. Reading Quinno's review below, I seemed to have received exactly the opposite service to him! Apparently there is a CAMRA discount. But I hadn't enquired. Overall, I quite liked this place. There is a good selection of drinks and you'll probably always find something new to admire or read each time you visit. Even a visit to the toilets can prove to be a titillating experience!

Facebook page of The Pharmacie Arms - www.facebook.com

Facebook page of The Pharmacie Arms - www.facebook.com

When does a micropub stop being a micropub and is actually just a pub? Maybe here. A lot of effort has gone into the interior which has a post-war pharmacy theme (yes…) with various old ads on the walls, lit cabinets with various medical and pharmacy based things, as well as a skeleton in an old dentists’ chair. The bar is made from a large old (dispensing?) cabinet. Five cask ales and three ciders available. I went for the Shippo Mild (NBSS 3.5), Cullercoats Porter (3.5), Oakham JHB (4) and Leatherbritches Hairy Helmet (3). Also a selection of foreign and crafty, with the selection being beamed down via UnTappd TV behind the bar. The young female floorwalkers were a bit on the flakey side, but the big old fellow running the show was giving it plenty of banter with his regulars. A nice place, close(ish) to the sister-in-law’s so I might well be back again before long.