The Fly, Liverpool

Despite the magnificent exterior this in actuality a heavily modern Okells place, with four of theirs plus two guests. I tried one of each; Okells St Nicks (end of barrel) and Odyssey Evil Empire which was much better. Plenty of craft keg etc available. Long and narrow internally, a bit like a Spoons (I kid you not) with a raised area to the left. The large main bar area is for vertical drinking. Fairly blandly decorated (some wood panelling to the rear and tiled flooring excepted) the bar was the star, quite a striking charcoal black with some nice embossed finials and a very long marble-style bar top. Gripe point was the pub was stupidly hot, probably down to a preponderance of those crappy hipster lightbulbs on a wire that seem to be de rigeur at the moment; may have lost as much weight drinking my pint as Gary Lineker did against Cameroon in Italia 90. Decent enough beer barn but I’m struggling to see why it’s held in such high regard elsewhere, really. Preferred the other Okells house I sampled, Thomas Rigby’s.