Sass, Weston Central, Weston Super Mare

Re-opened as Sass since my last review, décor wise it’s largely unchanged but the removal of all the sports paraphernalia has definitely improved things, and with the addition of some soft furnishings and a bit of judicious paintwork, it feels almost elegant in places now. Internally it’s still the same open plan layout, with some sort of wooden strip flooring, taupe colour paint on much of the walls with a Farrow & Ball shade of green elsewhere. This together with some flock wallpaper and some quite elaborate cornicework meant some corners felt quite refined, but this rather jarred with the overall feel of the pub I thought. The traditional carved wooden bar counter also felt rather at odds with the style of the rest of the pub. Likewise they had made a bit of a feature out of the ends of wince crates, cladding the odd pillar and such like, but this is by no means an upmarket wine bar. Seating was a bit of mixture with Chesterfield armchairs, stools and regular chairs all in evidence, whilst a few items of foliage were dotted around. What may well have been a tiled DJ booth was in one corner, and the large lighting rigs on the ceiling suggest that this may get somewhat livelier as the evening wears on. Further lighting was from some very large luminaries that used upturned wine glasses to make a bit of a feature. Unfortunately there were no real ales on tap, or indeed much in the way of any beer as far as I could see. I think I may have spotted John Smith’s Extra Smooth Crap on the bar, and that no doubt lived up to it’s name. Ciders fared somewhat better with Inch’s Medium Apple and Thatcher’s Gold.

Official site of Sass Cafe & Bar - sassweston.co.uk

Official site of Sass Cafe & Bar - sassweston.co.uk

As Jon has pointed out below, this was until recently a youth only, and consequently no alcohol, establishment, but is now a regular pub, although whether or not anyone over the age of about 20 would actually choose to visit it is another matter. It consists of one large, open plan room with an old wooden floor and painted white air conditioning ducting in the high ceiling. It seems to have something of a sports emphasis with several large screens, a Sky Sports fixture list and lots of England flags draped from the ceiling. In addition to this there were a few fruit machines, pool table, table top arcade game of some sort and even a punch bag machine. I’m not entirely convinced that encouraging customers to punch is the best way of avoiding aggression, but then I suppose it’s better that they attack a punch bag rather than other punters. The music was a little too loud for my taste, although not to the extent that it made conversation particularly difficult. Having recently opened as a pub you may have thought that some refurbishment work would have taken place, but there was little evidence of this and the loos in particular were in a pretty disgusting state. Two of the three toilets didn’t even have a seat. Unfortunately there were no ales on tap, real or otherwise, unless you count some smoothflow type thing. Ciders fared marginally better with Thatcher’s Gold and Strongbow Dark Fruit. Overall I can see little reason to visit here unless perhaps there’s a match on that you want to see, but even then there are better options nearby.