The Regal (Lloyds No 1 Bar), Cambridge

A huge JDW, previously a cinema, well described below Ales on were Ghost Ship, Doombar, Rye Mild, GK IPA, Trade Winds, Dark Side of the Moose, Wolf Brewery's Howler, Blindman's Mine Beer and Little Beer Corporation's Little Haka. There were some boxed ciders on as well, though I couldn't see how many. There was also the usual unlimited supply of coffee, but it isn't in the same league as Horton's so we stuck to the alcoholic drinks. The clientele were a comprehensively mixed bag ranging from students dressed up for a masquerade ball, through a bunch of drunk football fans, via a few Cambridge intellectuals to a rather inebriated wannabe soldier, still wearing a crumpled Poppy, who amused the bouncers while waiting for his taxi. The Stygian atmosphere made the range of beer in this final venue of our town crawl feel like an allowance, not a target, while it felt strange drinking ale in a pub whose name is an anagram of 'lager'.

This was our first port of call, after a lengthy walk from the station. The pub has 12 handpumps, which included the usual suspects and three guest. So we went for the Banks & Taylor Dragon Slayer. Certain areas around the pub are quite poorly lit, maybe this is to add some nostalgia to this former cinema.

Here's a piece of useless Spoons trivia, both of their Cambridge outlets are converted cinemas and both have a Greene King tied house right next door to them. The Regal is a Lloyds No. 1 so transforms into a late night club on some evenings of the week. At around 10:00 in the morning on a Saturday it was surprisingly busy with people coming for breakfast. In addition to the barn like area downstairs there is also an upstairs area that I didn't investigate. I remember coming here about ten years ago on a relatively quiet weekday summer afternoon and finding the place to be quite light and airy but on a mid winter morning it all seemed a bit dark and worn. The bar had two banks of six hand pumps with GK IPA & Abbot, Doom Bore, Brain's SA Gold and the rest an assortment from the Spoons Xmas list. I went for the SA Gold (£2.65) which was in reasonable nick but certainly wasn't Gold so I suspect it was Brain's SA wrongly clipped. Unsurprisingly given the central location this is a relatively expensive Spoons with many food items being around a quid dearer than other outlets and the standard guest ale being 66p dearer than their other Cambridge outlet. Rather strangely the large breakfast is 10p cheaper than the usual price. I have to say I preferred the other Spoons (the Tivoli) to this one despite the more remote location.