A Hoppy Place, Windsor

A small long and narrow bar, beardy beer nerds serving a decent range of beer, nice enough but I've been to better.

Alovely little micro/bottle shop.Friendly welcombe.Two cask beer and about 8 keg beers.My Elusive beer on cask was superb and my Lovibonds brewery beer was as good.Long narrow shop conversion with outside space at the rear.Great.

Bottle shop/micropub that I used a couple of times during the various lockdowns. It closes on a Monday, which prevented me visiting for a drink on my last visit to Windsor just prior to Christmas. So my latest midweek visit was the first for a drink in over 2 years. Little has changed during that time. There is an interesting choice of cask and keg beers, with an excellent selection of bottles and cans in the fridges. One change that has been made is the addition of a number of real ciders. The narrow space has the bar at the rear and I believe there are just 3 tables indoors. A corridor to the side of the bar leads to the toilets and further outdoor seating, which I have not yet explored. Staff are friendly and are certainly very knowledgeable about their beer range. The two cask ales were Double-Barrelled Parka & Elusive Microball. Ciders were Ross-on-Wye All Quadrants, Tutts Clump Dark Fruits & Berkshire Diamond & Ascension Pilot & Dance Commander. Craft beers were Lost & Grounded Helles & Saison D'Avon, Disruption/Elusive The Man Who Wasn't There, Newbarns Plain Dark Beer, Wild Weather King Street Pale & Let's Dansk, Duration Dripping Pitch, Siren Turns, Ampersand/Pastore Farro E Miele & St Mars of the Desert Fruit Stingo: Blackberries & Ruby Grapefruit. There are menus on the tables for pizzas, which came about due to the scientific discovery that substantial meals prevented the spread of Covid. They obviously proved popular, as they opted to keep them. But I'm not sure whether they are prepared on the premises or ordered in from elsewhere. We didn't choose to explore this option. An excellent choice for some more unusual beers (and now ciders) when in Windsor.

Described as Windsor’s first micropub, this place felt like a hybrid of a micropub and a bottle shop with seating for on sales thanks to the long row of fridges down one side packed full of bottles and cans. The premises is pretty narrow and loses quite a bit of space by having two ‘front-to-rear’ walkways down either side of the room – one leading past the fridges to the servery and the other on out to the toilets and garden. This leaves the squeezed space through the middle of the room for seating, affording enough space for high tables to be arranged lengthways with Covid partitioning screens between them, served by multi-coloured high stools. The bar is actually in a second room to the rear, but the walkways connect it seamlessly to the front space. The bar area is perhaps even more cramped, with enough room for just one more table, from where you can admire the servery’s glazed tile bar counter and orange bar back with its detailed beer board and row of keg taps. Despite being a typical shop conversion premises, some attempts have been made to make the place feel homely and characterful for those stopping by for a drink. The front window, for example, has been given a nice window display of beer bottles and flowers, whilst the walls are lined with hops and a few incongruous items, such as a space hopper, have been dotted around the place to distract the eye. Elsewhere, breweriana and an unused TV screen cover a lot of the remaining wall space, which is mostly painted white and therefore in need of a bit of visual stimuli. Following the left-hand walkway, you eventually reach a small and fairly unappealing garden space which I’m sure was a godsend during the pandemic’s ‘outdoor-drinking only’ period, but didn’t look like somewhere I’d want to spend too much time now that the interior was open again. I think I counted around a dozen craft keg options on the beer boards, but couldn’t spot any cask ale – it may have been temporarily off or I might have been unobservant, but they are Good Beer Guide listed, so it would be fair to expect to find some when visiting. I was happy enough taking my chances with the keg stuff though, opting for a pint of Lovibonds Loud American – a very pleasant, citrusy APA. The barman who greeted me was extremely friendly and I got the impression that this enterprise was a real labour of love from those who were working the bar that evening. I think I’d classify this place as being more of a bottle shop than a micropub, but that shouldn’t deter from the efforts made to accommodate on-site drinkers. It stands as a very good example of the bottle shop model or a modest, mid-tier micropub, but the excellent service and prospect of some decent cask ale mean it’s well worth taking a look when next in town.

Facebook page of A Hoppy Place - www.facebook.com

Facebook page of A Hoppy Place - www.facebook.com

Windsor's first micropub, majoring on craft keg and bottled/can beers though a couple of ale lines are in situ. The interior is classic ‘long and narrow with light décor’ micropub style with the fridges full of beer dominating, though there’s a small atsroturf yard at the rear for a change of scene. A very friendly welcome made me feel inclined to have a go at some of the more offbeat offerings. Prices vary but some (relative) bargains can be found in the more high-end foreign stock as the on-price isn’t too much more than buying it off-sales elsewhere. I’d be happy to pop back here but as with so many micropubs, timing your visit is key. It certainly fills a niche in Windsor’s already-impressive pub and bar scene. 7.5

Official site of A Hoppy Place - ahoppyplace.co.uk