#084 The Rummer Hotel

Rich

The Rummer Hotel bar is an unassuming building on the back streets of St Nicholas Market. Within is a wealth of food and drink to which we can’t really do justice in a short blog post, but we’ll tell you about it anyway.

#083 The Old Fish Market

Mike

Daylight saving time is over, and for those of us working the 9-5 daylight is over by the time we’re home once more. So, rather than the various beer gardens and boat decks, it’s the time of year that Pubs-That-Look-Like-Pubs™ can really shine.

And so to The Old Fish Market for a mid-week, hump-day beverage. Not long reopened since its refurbishment, the place is looking better than ever. I assume. I had never actually been here before.

I didn’t even take this photo, Adam did. This post is crumbling upon a foundation of lies.

Although we very much joined the work drinks crowd, our own places of work being outside the city meant that Rich and I arrived after the ‘happy hour’ prices of 5-7pm finished. Dan may have been here all day for all I know.

#063 The Elephant

Mike

Many* people have asked me how we go about choosing our venues. It’s often really very simple: we pick somewhere to meet, a direction to walk in, and proceed until we find somewhere we like the look of.

Places such as The Elephant stand in good stead, due to recommendations and seeing them when we were at that other bar (that one over there) put them on our radar, so to speak.

*at least, like, two people

#040 The Prince Of Wales

Adam

I have an adjusted schedule. My current job working on a radio breakfast show means I get up around four in the morning and I cope by pretending it’s constantly four hours ahead.

So if you read this at two in the afternoon, I’m sitting down to tea at six. If you read at six I’m watching my equivalent of late evening telly at ten. If you invite me out for a drink at ten I’m angry that you called me at two in the morning.

Consequently mid-week drinking for me is always a mission, but hell, I’m a trooper for this blog and so earlier this week I joined up with Mike and Rich at The Prince of Wales on Gloucester Road.

#025 Start The Bus

Mike

Drink. Food. Music. These three factors are fast becoming the central pillars in my evaluation of Bristol’s bars, pubs, and clubs. Enter Start The Bus, a venue that offers to satisfy all three of these desires.

Second bar I’ve covered whose name I found very confusing before moving to Bristol.

Firstly, the drink. And there is a lot of that to choose from. Over a dozen draught options, from local cask ales to foreign lagers, and a solid selection of bottles besides. I have two modes when it comes to drinking: adventure and familiarity. I’m either excited to try something new, or happy to have something tried and tested. With Bus’s range from every-bar standards like Becks and Amstel to beers from as far afield as Brooklyn Brewery, there’s plenty of variety to wet your whistle.

#020 The Woods

Mike

If you go down to The Woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise… unless, of course, if you’ve been following us around Bristol’s bars thus far and are used to something a little different.

I would describe its location as ‘on a hill’, but in Bristol that narrows nothing down.

Before I moved to what is officially Britain’s best city to live in and yet worst to drive in (don’t get me started), Rich would often times regale me with his fresh-out-of-Uni adventures here.

“… then we were drinking in The Woods, and–“

“Rich, we’re not teenagers any more. We’re allowed in bars and the like.”

“…”

#019 Zerodegrees

Adam

My first impression of a bar often sets the tone for how I feel about it forever more. Even the simple context of my first trip, the people I was with or the mood I was in can stubbornly colour my opinion no matter how many return trips are made.

A tad unfair perhaps but in Zero Degrees case I was just so bloody relieved to have left work during my first trip there that I now associate the place with that wonderful feeling on a sunny Friday afternoon where work is done and you sit down to enjoy the first drink of a blissfully idle weekend.

My pre-disposed good mood surrounding our second bar of this particular night was probably a good thing as Mike, Rich, and I faced quite a challenge to even get there.

#014 Aviator Bar

Adam

Few things are more exciting than flying a plane. Though I never earned my licence I used to fly in a glider with my Dad and beating up an airfield doing above 100kph gives you one hell of a rush – I will probably never forget the moment I first landed one by myself.

So I can get where the Aviator Bar up in Redland is coming from and I was pretty eager to suggest it when Mike and I needed a place to watch a bit of Six Nations rugby on a sunny afternoon a few weeks ago.

The name is in part born from one of the last working Bristol Hercules Engines in existence. This particular one belongs to the father-in-law of Aviator Bar’s Gavin Hogg and it represents the 1920s and 30s when Bristol led the aviation world.

#011 The Llandoger Trow

Rich

The Llandoger Trow originally dates from the 1600s and its name can be rather tricky to pronounce for those this side of the Severn estuary. I, for one, would only attempt say it aloud whilst totally sober, which is never the case for long on any given day.

#007 Seven Stars

Mike

“Close the snuffbox with a flourish.” – Seven Stars Ale House; the Rules of Snuff

Lucky number seven, and we’re having a brief pint in the Seven Stars. Seemingly busy for the midpoint of the week, I imagine this to be the local of choice for many.

The Sign of the Seven Stars, St Thomas Lane

Built in the 17th Century, this grade II listed building is known for being a local headquarters for slave trade abolitionists. These days it is home to the Beeriodical, Bristol’s longest running monthly beer festival and a fantastic pun to boot.