ReviewThis is a small bottle shop with limited seating for onsite drinking, just a short distance from Penge West station. The shop unit felt a little broader in dimensions than your typical shop converted craft beer bar, although this could well be because of the fact that the furniture has been arranged down either site, with a good deal of open space between, making the room feel more spacious than it might otherwise have. Modern tile flooring and grey painted walls are hardly unique features in the craft beer bar world, but the left-hand wall was covered with some nice rustic wood, which caught the eye on entry. Seating at present is limited to three high tables served by bar stools and one uncomfortable looking hard bench booth with exposed brick rear sections, although whether the seating options would normally be more varied were we not emerging from the pandemic, I can’t be sure. There is a beer board immediately to your left when you enter, hung above the aforementioned booth, whilst the servery is further into the room in the rear left corner. The bar only has a small counter but it supports one of those huge industrial looking bridge fonts, although much of this was obscured by a metal frame shelving unit full of unpacked boxes of beer, that had been positioned in front of the bar to prevent customers approaching. On the wall opposite the bar, a few fridges are full of the usual bottle shop fayre and a few punters popped in for some takeaways whilst I was here. There was a very enjoyable soundtrack playing away in the background, but as the only customer not here for take-outs, the atmosphere was pretty flat.
The beer board listed five craft keg options, three of which were from the Verdant Brewery and one of which was a 10% abv stout from Three Hills which clocked in at a heft £12 a pint. I opted for the more budget-friendly Verdant Headband Pale Ale at a mere £5.50 – a refreshing and flavoursome brew but perhaps a little over-carbonated. The barman was busy writing a lot of information on an A-board throughout the course of my stay but was very friendly and helped customers narrow down their searches through the fridges.
I thought this was a passable enough craft beer bar that seems to serve the local community well and offered some interesting beer to sample onsite. I can’t say I’m a huge fan of this sort of bar, as they tend to be devoid of atmosphere and populated by people who just want to talk beer, but this is one of the better examples I’ve seen and I may well pop back when passing through Penge in the future.
