The Malt & Mardle, Norwich

In such a fantastic city for pubs, Norwich was missing a micropub. It was this one that became the city's first. In fact, I'm not sure if any more have opened since. I'm a great fan of micropubs, but I was a little underwhelmed by this one. It's absolutely fine, but Norwich has too many other pubs that are much better. There is a single room with dark green and blue painted walls. There are hops on the ceiling. The bar is to the front left, with beers originating from a glass-fronted refrigerated storeroom to the rear right. There is also a fridge near the window with boxed ciders and various bottles. There are 3 cask ales. For my visit, these were Lacon's Ember, Black Iris Endless Summer & Mr Winter's Rorschach. Ciders were both from Lilley's - Mango & Peach. Keg beers included Three Blind Mice Milk Worm, Artefact Harlequin & Queer Brewing Burst Into Bright. It wasn't too busy on a Thursday evening. With one group of 4 leaving whilst I was there, when I departed, it left just one other couple in. Music was creating a bit of atmosphere, but then again the best micropubs have traditionally shunned music in favour of conversation. With excellent pubs such as the Artichoke, the Plasterers Arms, the Leopard, the Duke of Wellington and the King's Head all nearby, it's in a fairly convenient location and it's likely I'll stop by when passing to other destination venues.

A typical shop conversion micro, very small. The counter is on the left as you enter with a bit of seating in the front window, three pulls which are dummys and four keg taps which are live on the counter. Further back there’s a couple of tables opposite the cooler cabinet where the casks are kept and pulled from. There’s a chair and three quarters of a table lurking under a staircase that’s part of the shop next door, at back two more tables and a bench, a toilet off of there going right. Customers seemed to be mainly LGBT people although there’s nothing overtly gay about the place. Malt of course is self explanatory “does more than Milton can to justify God’s ways to man”, Mardle is apparently “a Norfolk dialect term meaning to chat, gossip or natter, best conducted with a pint in hand”, others have noted this in reviews but I thought I’d stick in the A.E. Houseman quote as well even though it doesn’t mean what people usually think.

Busy micro-pub with limited furniture, so quite tricky to find a spot to sit even mid-afternoon. Three real ales, not served from the (what turn out to be decorative) handpumps on the compact counter, but from the cool cabinet further back. Just enough time for a quick half of Mr Winter's excellent Rorschach Stout.