Merchants 1688, Lancaster

Just down the road from Lancaster station, this is a smart restaurant and bar, set in what appears to be an old wine cellar. You enter via an outdoor seating area with plenty of benches overlooking the road from the station, into a quarry stone floored, narrow room with impressive sandstone walls and the servery down the rear half of the right-hand wall. The bar has a nice dark wood counter and exposed stone bar back, making it a good fit with the pub's general aesthetic. Limited high stool seating can be found in this space, either serving small tables to the front or a drinking ledge along the rear wall. A board on the wall details the cellar's history dating as far back as 1688, including the fact that the ceiling timbers partly derive from the shipwreck of the Pusey Hall. Elsewhere there are old maps and photos of local interest on display. To the left, two doorways lead into good sized side rooms, the first of which is a lounge of sorts, with some decent comfy seating in rows to the front and rear, whilst the second is more of a formal dining room with pre-laid tables ready for diners. A nice indie pop soundtrack was playing on a quiet Monday morning and a few punters slowly started to trickle in as we approached midday. A wide ale range was evident at the bar, including a house beer called Merchants WIPA, Lancaster IPA, Rudgate Ruby Mild and Snow Wonder, Boland Pheasant Plucker and Settle Old Smooth Porter. Unfortunately, it seems this is too wide a range for the pub to support, as my half of the Porter was in fairly poor condition. I think this place has a few good points, such as the use of an interesting space with a long history, a pleasant pavement side patio area and the prospect of some interesting beer, but overall, I felt that the pub was focused more on the food side of the operation, with limited indoor seating for those just wanting a drink and some questionable beer quality. With plenty of great pubs around town, I would have no hesitation cutting this place from future crawls. Date of visit - 15th January 2024

a trendy little cavern place with tunnelled rooms coming off a main bar. has a wide range of real ale and some will like it. for me it's vacuous, too cramped and attracts the snooty brigade like the place next door.