The Grapevine, Rye

Located down a pleasant cobbled site street just off of one of Rye’s many picturesque shopping streets, I’m not sure this technically qualifies as a pub since it’s table service only and there was no sign of anything available on draught, although there did appear to be bottled beer available going on what we could see on the shelves, although this was not noted on the menu that was brought to our table.. The pub is split in to a couple of rooms, a larger one to the left which includes a band area, and there is, I understand, live jazz most evenings. The smaller room to the right has a bar counter, but as mentioned, the service is at your table. Décor wise it’s a little difficult to discern what it was like due to the extremely low light levels, but I think it included taupe paint on the walls and ceilings and plenty of wine bottles lining the walls, as well as rustic wooden tables, pictures, theatre masks and a few musical instruments including a trumpet. A couple of old wine barrels had been set in to the wall, and there were also various items of furniture that had been made from old barrels. The jazz band that were on were pretty good, and all in all it was a very relaxed setting, with friendly service and decent drinks, at least if you’re not after a beer, and I enjoyed my glass of red and a cocktail. This is a difficult one to mark, as a pub it falls woefully short, but I would happily pop back in again to listen to the music and chill out.