Avanti Capitola, Ulverston

Blue Scrumpy left this review about Avanti Capitola

Town centre wine bar that has appeared in the Good Beer Guide as recently as 2024. The venue has gold coloured walls and very much feels like a wine/cocktail bar. Ambient background music was playing.

The 2 regular beers are Lancaster Blonde & Cumbrian Ales Loweswater Gold. With no guest beer and the third handpull unclipped, I thought the ale range was fairly mundane. There are certainly many more pubs/bars in Ulverston with better beer ranges, including the Robinson's pubs. Brooklyn The Stonewall Inn IPA was on keg and the cider was Sheppy's Raspberry Cider. A special cocktail menu was offering some promotions.

Bar staff seemed more interested in whether we wanted to enter a raffle, which seemed a little odd to me at the time. The clientele were middle-old aged, drinking a mixture of beer, wine and cocktails. I think we were the youngest people in. Some complimentary cheese was available near the entrance door.

As we sat consuming our drinks, it became apparent why this age group were present and why staff had tried to sell us raffle tickets. A meat raffle began to take place for a chance to win sausages, sausages or more sausages. The bar has around 3 tables and all customers had raffle strips in front of them, waiting with baited breath to see if they could get their mitts on some of the prize sausages. There was quite a bit of cheering and guffawing as the winning numbers were picked out by a guy who did look as if he was the local butcher.

After around 4 sets of sausages having been raffled, we decided to interrupt the ceremony and exit stage left, leaving this group to their sausage fest (there were indeed quite a few sausage jokes being shouted out).

Not sure quite what to make of this place. The meat raffle certainly provided some entertainment (more for the benefit of the regulars than ourselves) but the beer range was mundane and this is definitely not a pub. So, I wouldn't rush back.

On 4^th June 2026 - rating: 5
[User has posted 3537 recommendations about 3535 pubs]