Convivial Rabbit, Dorchester

Hidden away down the most unpromising looking of alleyways, a short walk from the High Street, this is Dorchester’s contribution to the micropub scene. I’m not sure what this place used to be, but it had the feeling of a former workshop, with its concrete floor, whitewashed brick walls and high ceiling. As you enter, the bar is to your left and has a timber fronted counter with a series of casks racked high up on the bar back and beer boards along the dark painted canopy. The room is actually of a pretty decent size, so there’s a good amount of seating available, mainly in the form of tables and chairs plus a few pews here and there and some armchairs in the front corner. Visiting just before Christmas, some of the tables had festive looking jars on them, each full of Quality Street sweets. An upright piano stands on the back wall and it had an ‘Easy to Play Pub Songs’ book on it, suggesting that impromptu sessions and singalongs might be in the offing. The walls are decorated with lots of nice breweriana, some comedy-themed pictures and various arty bits and bobs. In the centre of the room, there are a couple of broken wooden pillars, one of which has a rack holding the day’s papers on it. We turned up on a random afternoon and found the place doing a pretty good trade, with all of the tables in use by the time we left. A quick perusal of the beer boards revealed a decent ale range comprising Titanic Plum Porter Grand Reserve, Milk Street Funky Monkey, Settle Mainline, Nomadic Nymph and By The Horns Hibernate, along with four of five real ciders and a festively appropriate mulled cider option. My pint of Hibernate was a reasonable £3.50 and in excellent condition, whilst my Dad was very complimentary about his pint of the Funky Monkey. The landlord was very friendly and didn’t grumble too much when one of our party decided they wanted a cup of coffee. This isn’t somewhere you’re likely to stumble across, but it’s very much worth making the effort to find as I thought it was a very nice little pub with a warm welcome and a good atmosphere in a decently fitted out room. The ale range suggests they source beers from reliable breweries nationwide, so you should be well rewarded for repeat visits – something I hope to be able to do sometime soon.

Tucked away and with a bit of character, beer straight from the barrel behind the bar. Nice micro pub

Very well described by Aqualung, below, this pub started out as a pop-up pub with no name but has become established and is now a firm part of the local ale scene. The name has become a little ironic, as it is on the verge of falling into the trap that so many micros do, that of becoming too cliquey; there was no welcome here, and the bar flies seemed to be a bit put out when they had to move (the pub was otherwise empty) to let us to the bar. The ales were in excellent condition, so it was worth the effort. Blackjack’s Shuffled Deck, Gloucester Gold, Ilkley Pale, The Devil Made Me Brew It and Twisted’s Gaucho sat alongside 3 real ciders from Rosie, Cranbourne and Twisted (again). It was an enjoyable visit, all things considered, and it is an essential inclusion in a town crawl.

Official site of Convivial Rabbit - www.convivialrabbit.co.uk

Official site of Convivial Rabbit - www.convivialrabbit.co.uk

The Convivial Rabbit is a genuine micropub set down a small alleyway off Trinity Street. It consists of a bright square room with a laminate floor and a bar counter with the casks on stillage behind it. Sawdust is spread across the area in front of the bar and there is some low seating. A major feature is the friendly young pub dog Ziggy Sawdust who enjoys his own corner and bedding to lie down on, something I've felt I could do with at times. It sells cask beers (no keg), a few ciders and a limited amount of wine and gin. Beers available were Piddle Mad Hare, Red Rock Black Crest, Wild Weather Big Buddy, Stonehenge Old Smokey and Kettlesmith Fogline. I tried the Mad Hare (£3.80) and Old Smokey (£4.00). The Mad Hare was rather flat but tasted fine, probably near the end of he cask while the Old Smokey was excellent. This is a fine friendly micropub, my only concern is how the beer will get on without a cold room in very hot weather.