The Akeman, Tring

A strange one, this. A pleasant brick building in the eponymous side street, it's been made into a very smart cafe-cum-restaurant, with wood panelling on the walls and pillars, a solid fuel stove set against a bare-brick chimney, but exposed air-conditioning ducts and electric wiring panels. There are a couple of sofas and an arm chair by the stove, but further back the majority of the space is taken up by dining tables. The lengthy bar is similarly split between the small area serving alcoholic drinks (of which more anon) and the much larger space devoted to the making of coffee and food. The end of the bar nearest the door features three hand pumps: Brakspears Bitter had its pump clip turned round, but there were Wychwood Hobgoblin and Tring Ridgeway available. I went for the local beer, which was in reasonable nick and, surprisingly, the cheapest beer on my mini-crawl of Tring. The majority of the customers at the time of my Tuesday afternoon visit, were mothers of very young babies. Whether they were all there by coincidence or by arrangement I couldn't ascertain. The baby that was complaining the loudest was luckily on his way out of the door as I arrived.

Official site of the Akeman, contains menus - www.theakeman.co.uk

Official site of the Akeman, contains menus - www.theakeman.co.uk

The Akeman was voted Best UK Pub Design 2009 at The Publican Awards. With a csy bar to the front and a superb modern restaurant to the rear it provides first class facilities for drinking and eating. More details at www.theakeman.co.uk