Little Drop of Poison, Exeter

Official site of Little Drop of Poison - www.littledropofpoison.co.uk

Official site of Little Drop of Poison - www.littledropofpoison.co.uk

Strange place, being a mix of old-school alehouse and a modern student-focused bar. Anyway, it was busy on a Friday evening, so good to see it working for whoever it sees as its market. The floorplan comprises two parts; a basic seating and pool table area as you enter through the corner door, and a larger in front of and alongside the counter. Disappointingly, just a pair of Bristol Beer Factory cask ales - an excellent Delray Beach (£4.80) and a Plum Porter - available from a bank of eight handpumps. However, there is also a good range of crafty keg beers on offer from the taps on the bar-back.

An overwhelming smell of damp hits you on the way in. The feel is very much that of mid 90s student plub; dark green on all non-floor surfaces, some light wood fittings, dark varnished furniture from a former life 40 years ago and a pool table. Rock sound track. Eight pumps with just a cider and solitary cask, a tired but drinkable Bristol Beer Factory Endeavour (NBSS 2). There's a modern tiled craft keg wall but the utter lack of promotion meant I couldn't be arsed to note if it was of any interest. The Cuckoo is a much better bet for your crafty wares. 5.5

This is a deceptively large craft beer bar with a good city centre location close to a lot of Exeter’s livelier nightspots. The pub is split into two distinct halves thanks to some sizable sections of partitioning wall that run from front to back through the middle of the room, perhaps a sign that this was once two separate adjacent premises. The right-hand side is bare boarded and has virtually no seating, with the main area dominated by a pool table. The front of the pub offers some decent seating options under the front windows and a fairy light strewn ceiling, where you can enjoy a bit of people spotting, especially on a weekend evening when plenty of drunken revellers will be tottering past. Some more standard table and chair seating runs through the middle of the room, opposite the servery, which occupies much of the left-hand wall. The bar has a plain tongue and groove panelled counter and modern white tile bar back with all of the keg taps lined along it in true craft beer bar fashion. Further back, a raised platform offers additional tables and chairs under the same half panelled walls with dark painted uppers that line much of the rest of the room. Décor comes mainly in the form of breweriana from contemporary craft beer breweries such as Brewdog, Vedett and Left Hand. A fun new-wave soundtrack played in the background on my Thursday late evening visit and there was a modest turnout, mainly from students. Eight handpulls on the bar promised much, but only two were in action, with Bristol Beer Factory Milk Stout and City of Love to pick from. These were ably backed up by no less than eighteen craft keg lines serving an extensive range of beers from UK micros and a few overseas craft producers. The Milk Stout was £4.20 for a pint and in pretty good condition, although aside from an old couple sat at the bar, I seemed to be the only person on the cask, so perhaps the decision to only put two ales on was a wise one. This wasn’t quite what I was expecting to find – a rather dark, gloomy pub with a student-feel – but it is nevertheless a great venue for anyone wanting to try plenty of different craft beers in a central location. I liked the place enough to consider a return and would suggest it is a much better prospect than a lot of the drinking barns and tacky nightclubs hereabouts.