The Brown Bear, Sheffield

well-run Sam Smiths museum in a quaint street in the middle of town. Some music was coming in from outside but otherwise you could hear a pin drop, customers were mainly just single older men reading the paper. OBB in acceptable form but not top notch, a bloke came in and immediately proclaimed the stout to be the best beer in Yorkshire. I quite like it but I think he’s getting carried away. Good friendly pub, and probably best enjoyed when the conversation is flowing.

If you like unreformed two-bar Sam Smith's pubs, this one's for you. Half full with old blokes (by which I mean older than me), setting the world to rights in a very traditional way. OBB thankfully available in cask form (£3.00), but I constantly worry about Humph bursting in to confiscate my 'phone / notebook. When I'm feeling grumpy, I quite like zero-frills pubs like this, but I usually wake up and remember which century we're in...