Molloys, Teignmouth

This place has a rather misleading name that might well lead you to believe this is an identikit Irish pub, but it’s actually part of a small chain of establishments run by the local Platform 5 Brewery. The pub has front and rear bars, but the room has been knocked through down the left side, opening things out a little whilst still retaining the sense of two different areas. The front bar is a bare boarded space with hard benches to the front and right, supported by plenty of low stools under half panelled walls with white uppers decorated with some signed sports shirts and various framed beer and rail themed items. The bar is to the rear right and has a simple grey counter front and modest bar back. To the left, there’s a decent raised seating area with fixed benches down the side wall and tables and chairs elsewhere, all broken by high wooden screens that effectively form the benches into separate booths. There’s more screened bench seating as you move into the rear bar area, past a centrally positioned upturned barrel, with the rear facing bar over to the right. Further back, there’s another raised seating area with a mix of high and low stools serving small tables and drinking ledges. To the rear left is a tiny snug-like space with a single table and a pub mirror inside, whilst to the left of this, there is a winding passageway to the toilets, which has been decorated with a few old pub signs, including a great one from when the pub was a Bass house known as The Kangaroo. There are a number of TV screens throughout the pub, all of which were showing live football during my stay, although the sound was muted in favour of an excellent indie and alternative rock soundtrack. There were two Platform 5 beers available on handpull when I arrived – Black Crow and Coaster. The chirpy lone barman poured me a half of the Black Crow for £1.90, but it wasn’t in particularly good condition and had I ordered a full pint, I would’ve almost certainly returned it. There was a pretty good midweek crowd in, and the customer base seemed pretty varied, with groups of younger ladies rubbing shoulders with lone old boys, work colleagues and pub tickers like myself. This was a last-minute addition to my crawl, added when I realised I wouldn’t have time to visit their sister pub in Torquay the following day. I’m pretty glad I stopped by, even if the beer was a duff one, as it’s a pleasant pub that’s clearly still finding its feet and will hopefully tighten up on the beer quality once they’ve fully bedded in. Definitely worth a look if you’re checking out the more well-known Blue Anchor a little further down the road.