The Hop, York

Following the success of sister venues in Wakefield, Leeds and Sheffield, this became the Ossett brewery’s fourth ‘Hop’ pub when it opened back in 2013. The pub maintains the brand’s winning combination of live music and a varied ale range, although this venue also advertises itself as a pizzeria and seems to place more of an emphasis on food than the three bars that preceded it. Entering from Fossgate, you find yourself in a bare boarded room with some attractive coloured floor tiles around the bar area. The rather grand looking servery is over to the left and has a decorative counter and comparatively plain dark wood bar back, although there are some fine white, green and blue tiles above and to the side. High banquette seating to the right serves some unusually tiny tables with large mirrors on the wall above, which has been covered with wallpaper depicting what appear to be pump clips. A large decorative urn and several statues have been put on display to lend the place a sense of history and a few huge barrels are stood on a ledge over the front entrance. The room narrows a little as you pass the bar, with the wall opposite painted with various quotes and decorated with a number of small mirrors. Once past the bar, you find yourself in a bare boarded dining room with a large sky-lit roof and plenty of seating. More impressive decorative items have been positioned around the room and further on there is access to the restaurant/pizzeria area, which I didn’t get around to exploring. The ale range was led, but not dominated, by Ossett beers. The full range comprised Ossett Yorkshire Blonde, Big Red, Silver King and Excelsior, Rat White Rat, Fernandes Night Jar, Great Heck Voodoo Mild, Exit 33 Thirst Aid, Half Moon Hull Moon, Shipyard APA and Thornbridge Bayern. Two real ciders rounded out the hand pulled options and there was a decent keg and bottled selection also available. I tried the Thirst Aid, which was in decent shape but maybe not quite the exciting beer I was expecting. I thought this was a very well presented city centre venue and an excellent contrast to the classic, traditional Blue Bell over the road. This is a venue with potential to attract a wide customer base and acts as a good example of how to create a modern venue which can appeal to the traditionalist as well. Well worth including on a city centre crawl and a good addition to the ‘Hop’ portfolio.

A new (2013) York city centre pub and pizzeria run by Ossett brewery in a very nice shop conversion. Enter to the main bar area with a lovely dark wood barback, high ceiling, hogsheads above the doorway and some original tiling. Beyond is an unexpectedly large airy extension with live music facilities and the pizzeria. This area houses tiled walls, large portraits and a nice glass ceiling which allows for plenty of light. Check out the large multi-coloured glass lightshades hanging from the ceiling. As to be expected, the ales were Ossett-heavy, I went for a guest - Great Heck Voodoo Mild - which was in excellent shape. Also a couple of real ciders available as well as some craft keg. Very impressive; not a traditional pub per se but certainly good fun and I imagine it would really come into its own on a live music night.

Behind the large windowed frontage of the Hop is a high ceilinged L shaped bar with seating that runs along the front windows and along the right hand wall. At the rear is a much larger area that houses a pizzeria and more seating. This area looks as though it used to be outside before a roof with a large skylight was added. There is a stage along the right hand wall that is used to host live music and comedy. There were no distractions such as gaming machines or televisions, but there was some low background music. The bar supports 11 hand pumps and many fonts for dispensing premium draught products. Stone baked pizzas are priced around £7.50 and are available at lunchtime and evening Monday to Thursday and all day Friday to Sunday. I was surprised how quiet it was during my visit on a recent Friday at lunchtime. During my visit there were no complaints about the beer choice or quality, but I found the atmosphere to be non-existent. In my opinion there are better options nearby so I do not plan to be rushing back anytime soon.

As others have mentioned easily mistaken for a Pizza restaurant from the outside rather than the quite decent bar it actually is. This is the fourth and most recent venue of the Yorkshire Hop concept which opened in 2013. Well described by previous reviewers I liked the light and airy high ceilinged main bar area with its tiled surroundings and dark wood serving area and then the separate Pizza restaurants at the back through an archway. But I can imagine it’s one of those venues that gets quite noisy when busy and it was getting quite loud and lively atmosphere with not a great deal of us in on this late Friday lunchtime. Impressive range of craft and cask beers are on offer detailed on the main board to the left as you enter and I ducked the available Ossett brews to go for the Great Heck Voodoo Mild which was in good condition.

I too thought that this one didn't look much like a pub from the outside. Indeed I suspect that its main focus is on the pizzeria side of the business, as there is more seating down at the far end that looked like it was dedicated to that trade than there was near the front where the bar counter and handpumps are sited. I also noticed an enormous portrait of Charles II down at the pizzeria end of the room, and some hogsheads on a shelf above the entrance. It's a nice enough place, and the ale selection is certainly up there with the best of them, but I don't reckon it's the sort of place for a quiet drink. It started to get very lively on the Saturday afternoon on which we visited (some would say buzzing and lively, others might say noisy and brash), but I enjoyed the hour or so we sat in the sun by the front window watching people walk up and down Fossgate.

My initial impressions on seeing the outside of this place were that it looked a bit gaudy and the sign "Real Ale and Pizzeria" had me wondering what the real priorities were going to be. Once inside however I really liked the place, it is big enough to comfortably cater for drinkers and those in search of a pizza. Ceilings are very high, floors are generally tiled as is a wall alongside the bar so I'd expect quite a din when the place is very busy. The pizzeria is at the far end, past the side bar and the oven can be seen through an arch in an exposed brick wall. The menu is on a wall, they look decent value from £6.50 for a basic Margherita up to £9 for something called a Bosco. The pub is clearly affiliated in some way with Ossett Brewery, several of their beers being on the range of handpumps, Columbia Creek, Blonde, Big Red, Silver King and Excelsior plus Rat White Rat. Others were Fernandes Nightjar, Half Moon Hull Moon and Great Heck Voodoo Mild. Janet's Jungle Juice and Abrahall's Cracklin' Rosie were the ciders. There is also a row of craft keg fonts. Décor includes portraits of various Dukes of York and the famous nursery rhyme is displayed on a wooden board. A feature wall of mirrors contains further inscriptions of songs and ditties. A small stage along the side towards the rear suggests live music features sometimes.