The Green Room, Bristol

Recently reopened after a spell of closure, this has also been extensively renovated and is now largely unrecognisable from it’s previous incarnation. In many ways it feels as though it’s more of a cocktail bar now, although there was nonetheless still a small selection of draft options available. It some ways it felt as though it had a bit of a gangsta vibe to it, with a doorman who had clearly been smoking something other than tobacco, and a DJ playing reggae music at far too loud a volume for easy conversation. In fairness to them, it was quite basic before and they’ve done a decent enough job of making it feel more upmarket with sanded wooden boards on the floor and dark green and blue paintwork on much of the walls, as well as some art deco style wallpaper in places. Seating was a mixture of padded banquettes and coordinating chairs. Lighting levels were quite low with more art deco style shades on the walls, and small rechargeable lamps on each table. A few pot plants were dotted around, but otherwise there was little of any note. Unfortunately, there were no real ales on tap, or in fact any beers at all come to that. Ciders fared marginally better with a duo from Cornish Orchards, Gold and Cherry & Blackberry, although not being a fan of theirs I went for a bottle of the Kicking Goat which actually went down very well. Overall though, with the lack of any beer and the loud music, it’s not somewhere I’ll be in a rush to return to.

A recent opening on the former site of the Cat Café, this is the tap house for the Beard & Sable Cider Company based just a few miles south of Bristol. They apparently specialise in hopped cider as might well be inferred from the pub name, and a recent Saturday evening visit found tables and benches out the front of the pub, with the road presumably having been closed to traffic. Whether or not this is a regular occurrence, I am not sure. Internally it’s fairly basic in terms of décor, with rough chipboard covering much of the walls along with roughly sawn planks elsewhere. Flooring was predominantly something similar, with pale grey tiling around the perimeter. Seats were all made from some sort of miniature plastic beer barrels that had been fitted with a cushioned top, whilst the tables were larger wooden barrels. Some of the timberwork had been painted dark blue, whilst a small scattering of PA equipment and a guitar suggested that perhaps live music is featured on occasions. Despite the basic and utilitarian appearance, I actually quite liked it ion here and felt that is had a chilled out and relaxed vibe, and the young barmaid seemed pleasant enough, and was happy to explain the different drink styles available. As mentioned, cider is clearly the focus here with the solitary beer offering being Wild Beer’s Shika on keg. Their own ciders dominated the line-up as might be expected, with their Dolores, Idunn and Freya. The guest ciders on this occasion were Pilton Scarlett Sharpe and Red Cow. All in all I quite liked it here and hope that it gets established they will extend the opening hours, which are currently only Friday’s, Saturday’s and Sunday’s.