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So!, Ripon
Ripon
HG4 1EQ
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 6 of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Graham Coombs left this review about So!
A much tarted-up town pub, as mentioned below, divided into "Bar" and "Eats" sides which probably tells you what you need to know. It feels very much like a first project for a newly-qualified interior designer, i.e. a discordant collection of random 'trending' features with no overall style or theme. There is an intriguing floor window to view barrels in the cellar below though. It is still pretending not to be a Greene King house by not selling any of their beers, with TT Landlord, Black Sheep Best, Old Peculier and Ossett Blonde on handpump. OK to pass through but didn't really attract me at all.
On 7th January 2023
- rating: 6
[User has posted 3339 recommendations about 3276 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Old Boots left this review about So!
Reopened 15th March 2018 under the management of Greene King. No Greene King beers to be seen in spite of the ownership. Not much change from before, three out of four pulls at work with Yorkshire beers in the right hand bar only, eight kegs taps on a horseshoe and two more on a serve yourself setup in the right hand bar. The left hand bar is more of a restaurant.
On 18th March 2022
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 3269 recommendations about 2978 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Old Boots left this review about The Black Bull
Reopened as SO! Bar & Eats 24th July 2013 as the third in the group, an expensive (£200k) gutting and refurbishment has turned a dingy, past its sell by date, pub into a sparkling new bar and eatery. The two room layout remains but nothing else of the former interior. The larger room to the right on entering has a seating area in the corner with the new counter in the same place as the old down the side, the rest of the room has a mix of furnishing mainly tables and chairs. Four hand pumps serve a reasonable local selection, Leeds Pale, Copper Dragon, Theakstons Best and Thwaites Wainwright on this occasion, the smaller room has a further three pulls with the same beers. Keg drinkers have a fairly standard choice of national brands plus Budvar and Moretti. Wine drinkers can choose from a wide selection. Laminated floors and a trendy grey paint job to the plain unadorned walls, apart from a blackboard of the cask beer choices, complete the decor. The smaller room has some sofas and a more discreet and intimate area at the back. All in all a good refurbishment and one that is popular with women, certainly a bar to watch in future as it settles down into city life.
On 27th July 2013
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 3269 recommendations about 2978 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Old Boots left this review about The Black Bull
===Feb 2013===
There was a fair bit of rejoicing when the new management restored the handpumps, sadly defeat was seized from the jaws of victory. The staff would rather be chatting with their friends on the wrong side of the bar or be outside having a fag, this isn't really a problem as there are not enough packs of Dry Roast peanuts in the world to cover up the taste of beer this poor. There are degrees of pubs in this world from the "don't miss at all costs"; "yes that's good"; "well it's not a bad pub", "um"; "if we must"; "oh,there must be somewhere else?" The Black Bull is currently in the final category.
===Summer 2010 update===
Under new management for a couple of months now with a few changes, a slightly broader beer range and the Vaults and Lounge labels have swapped places. apart from being tidier the changes are slow and gentle, probably so as not to upset the Riponites who are a bit conservative.
Two bar pub in city centre, part of Ripon's limited drinking circuit. Average food and below average beer, Theakstons XB, Old Peculier and Black Sheep bitter plus the S&N range of lagers, smooths and ciders . Public bar called vaults and a lounge, the lounge still retains some of the former panelled grandeur of this ex coaching inn. Service is polite rather than warm but efficient enough. The beer is competently kept but definitely nowt special. A good mix of clientele, a dozen young women and a noisy gaggle of unwittingly funny OAP bikers in the lounge, plus some blokes in the vaults on my last visit. Food available most of the time as evidenced by the leaving on tables of (clean) cutlery most of the time in the lounge.
On 18th February 2013
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 3269 recommendations about 2978 pubs]