Alvinos, Newcastle Central, Newcastle Upon Tyne

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This compact bar is primarily a cocktail joint but they also stock a range of craft beers, although sadly no cask ale. The bar has large shop-style front windows which look directly over the servery which is positioned in the front left corner, directly opposite the entrance. The servery has a nice curved dark wood counter with a matching canopy and a mirrored bar back. A few high stools stand in front of the bar, under the front windows and along a ledge down the right hand wall, but the front part of the room mainly offers standing room only. A couple of steps lead you up to the main part of the room which also has a ledge and high stools along the right hand wall, but also offers some standard tables and chairs and a single long banquette to the left. A few bits of craft beer breweriana have been put on show, but the bar's main theme seems to be comic books - quite an astute theme to go for at present if the number of super hero movies in the cinema these days is any indication. The gents toilets in particular were a mine of retro comic book nostalgia, with the walls completely papered with posters and front covers from old editions of all the well known characters. To the rear of the room there is table football and a pinball game (Ripley's Believe It Or Not) and there was a loud and fairly awful electronic music soundtrack playing through the entirety of my late Sunday evening visit, which seemed a bit unnecessary given the time and lack of customers.
The beer range is keg only, with a surprising number of mainstream brands lining up against one or two small batch beers. I tried Almasty IPA which was served in a correctly branded glass but which I found far to gassy. For obscure craft beers you really need to focus on the bottle and can range, which seemed to be relatively comprehensive.
I couldn't quite see what this bar was aiming for. As a craft beer bar it doesn't really work due to the limited options at the bar, whilst the overall look and feel didn't really suit that of a cocktail bar. This place has a little something going for it but if you're hoping to experiment with small batch craft beer, you'd do much better to visit the nearby Bierrex or Brewdog bars.

On 16^th May 2016 - rating: 5
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