Citizen Brew, Twickenham

Official site of Citizen Brew - ctznbrew.com

Official site of Citizen Brew - ctznbrew.com

An open-plan American style bar with wait to be seated signs at the door,no real ale keg only.

This stylish modern bar in the centre of Twickenham is part of the Lost Group, responsible for a number of quirky bars around the capital. This particular venue has a large single room layout, broken down into several distinctly different areas. You enter via a porch into a front section with the unusual sight of Astroturf on the floor, a large tree branch hanging from the ceiling and old wooden tennis racquets on walls decorated with a stylish contemporary wallpaper design. Quite what the intended effect was supposed to be, I can only guess at, but it all seems very quirky for the sake of it rather than having a discernable theme. There are plenty of seating options in this front section, ranging from high padded bench booths to sofas and armchairs or high tables and stools. The servery runs down the right hand side of the room and has a couple of sections of white tiling on the bar back, from which the keg taps protrude. A large central pillar breaks the room up nicely and on the other side there are a few more standard tables as well as a large dresser with a battered old suitcase and wax covered candelabra stood on top of it. To the rear there is a raised dining-style seating area which has a mix of retro wallpaper and a strange design depicting birds and animals partying. The seating here comprises various padded banquettes, some of which are in a brighter area lit by a large skylight. Music played throughout my stay and I have to say that their taste of music was very good in my opinion. There were three ales available on my visit - Yeovil Lynx Wildcat, Twickenham Naked Ladies and something called Ales & Tails Summer EPA which I assume is brewed by their own Lost Brewing operation. I thought I should give it a try, but unfortunately it wasn't really up to much. The keg range is pretty good and included the likes of Meantime and Sheppy's Cider, whilst a strong bottle list is also available. The staff were friendly enough but seemed a bit bored on a quiet Sunday afternoon. Having coincidentally visited their sister pub, Powder Keg Diplomacy, a week before and enjoyed it very much, I was hoping for much the same here but found this place lacking any real character or warmth. A poor pint didn't help matters either and whilst this is certainly a good option to include on a crawl of the area, it has some way to go to match up to Twickenham's best boozers.

This is a rather curious place indeed, the bar is on a side wall where there are six handpumps, Ales and Tails Craft Cider, a new concept to me, plus XT6 Rich Ruby, XTπ Mild, Twickenham Hornet and Grandstand, one unclipped. There are taps on the tiled bar back for a number of keykeg type offerings. On entering the front part of the pub has an Astroturf floor, upturned plant pots hang from the ceiling containing plastic sunflowers, a wooden panelled side wall displays old wooden tennis racquets and a small stuffed fox looks down on the proceedings. A washing line replete with pegs hangs over the Astroturf, there are a couple of aged battered suitcases, candelabras, a collection of wine carafes, upright piano, an antique typewriter and cash register. A metal 1950s style coat rack has tennis balls substituted for the coat hooks, framed pictures display various animals with "tails". Very mixed seating including a park bench amongst the usual variants, a rear boarded area extends beyond the main room, set up like an American diner with red plastic benched booths. Two small outdoor verandas also with Astroturf face the street. I have no clue as to what they are attempting to achieve here, it is like an Antic pub on hallucinatory drugs. My pint of Hornet was "on offer" at £2.50, I wasn't going to miss a trick like that, beer menus on the tables suggest that the normal pricing, especially for the keg offerings, are considerably higher. Thirds are available, you can get a "beer platter". A very strange place, very quiet mid Saturday afternoon, most probably more of an evening venue maybe. Certainly not to my taste.