The Pubs of Hove part 2 : Hove Actually
Cask, Craft or Crap?
The area that I am calling Hove Actually is central Hove and runs from Sackville Road/Hove Street in the west to Palmeira Square in the east, taking in Kingsway to the south and Seven Dials to the north. In that chunk of town there are at least 21 pubs and bars, and I have drunk in all of them. I say at least because this part of town shows, in microcosm, the changing nature of the bar scene in Brighton and Hove. There are traditional pubs here, both large and small - the Sussex, the Neptune, even the Palmeira - there are micropubs, craft beer bars and there is a growing number of cafe-bars.
The best place to get a handle on the number of pubs in an area is @CAMRA_Official's very handy What Pub? website. Unlike the selective Good Beer Guide this lists every pub in an area that serves cask ale. It's also pretty up-to-date, although how up-to-date depends on the efficiency of the local CAMRA branch. My criteria are somewhat broader than CAMRA's, of course so I've had to scrutinise Google Maps to make sure I haven't missed anywhere!
Traditional Pubs
When I describe a pub as traditional I am generally thinking of three things. One, the floor is mostly carpeted (and that carpet is very likely patterned) ; two, there will be cask ale but the choice will be limited and of the one or two choices, one will be Harvey's Best ; three, the furniture will be comfortable and probably not modern.
In this part of town the Sussex is probably the archetypal traditional pub. Their casks are Harvey's Best (see what I mean?) and, when I visited, Dark Star Hophead. Quality was OK but not much more. The barman was extremely friendly and the bar, on the Friday night when I visited, was busy and had a good atmosphere. Still, this isn't a pub I'm likely to come back to, especially as there is a much better traditional pub on the other side of Kingsway.
This is the Neptune, a regular fixture in the Good Beer Guide and an unashamedly rock'n'roll pub, as the bar mural shown would seem to suggest. It's a small, dark, cosy room with a tiny stage at one end, and five handpumps. On a recent visit the breweries featured were Harvey's, Greene King, Dark Star, Adnams and Downland. I'm a massive fan of Downland's Devil's Dyke Porter so that was my choice and it was excellent.
Less than a mile away, on New Church Road, right opposite Tesco's, is another traditional pub which could almost be the Neptune's twin. This is the Seafield. It too is small, dark and cosy and like its lookalike it's a locals' pub where everybody seems to know everybody else. There, however, the similarities end. I called in on a Saturday night and was initially impressed to see three handpumps. I was unimpressed to discover that all three beers were off. Their keg offering was similarly duff and I ended up drinking Kronenbourg.
This is the Neptune, a regular fixture in the Good Beer Guide and an unashamedly rock'n'roll pub, as the bar mural shown would seem to suggest. It's a small, dark, cosy room with a tiny stage at one end, and five handpumps. On a recent visit the breweries featured were Harvey's, Greene King, Dark Star, Adnams and Downland. I'm a massive fan of Downland's Devil's Dyke Porter so that was my choice and it was excellent.
Less than a mile away, on New Church Road, right opposite Tesco's, is another traditional pub which could almost be the Neptune's twin. This is the Seafield. It too is small, dark and cosy and like its lookalike it's a locals' pub where everybody seems to know everybody else. There, however, the similarities end. I called in on a Saturday night and was initially impressed to see three handpumps. I was unimpressed to discover that all three beers were off. Their keg offering was similarly duff and I ended up drinking Kronenbourg.
Adapted traditional pubs
It's no coincidence that the pubs I've included here are nearly all aiming for the family market. They're also medium to large, they serve food and the furniture affects the sort of plain, solid, functional look that you find in DFS. The best of the bunch is probably the Connaught, which is at the top of Hove Street. It's an L-shaped room with half of the pub for dining and the other half for drinking. It was full of families when I visited and had two cask ales on offer - Oxford Gold (it's a Brakspears tied house) and Wells Bombardier. I'm not a fan of either but the Bombardier was certainly well-kept.
The Palmeira is also a tied house, Greene King this time, and it's a bright, airy space with regular live music on offer. I went on a Saturday afternoon when a Latin band were setting up. The clientele was mostly middle-aged men but there were a couple of families in. The pub has been recently, and tastefully, made over and the bar boasts an impressive six handpumps. As well as Greene King IPA and Abbot, Bedlam Phoenix was available, St Austell Tribute and two from Long Man: Best Bitter and Old Man. Appropriately, given my advancing years, I had the Old Man. It was quite sprightly.
Despite a wholesale refurb, sprightly is the last word I would apply to the Hove Park Tavern. My last visit here, on my way home from a wearing afternoon of Christmas shopping, must have been all of ten years ago when it was one of the grottiest pubs in Brighton. It's quite a feat to spend as much money on a pub as Enterprise (or Ei Group, as they now style themselves) have here and for it to remain a pub you'd want to avoid. The pool table is new, so are the games machines and the bar looks genuinely impressive but the beer ...
OK, here's the thing. Something that I have discovered during my exhaustive pub visits is that when a a pub has only two cask ales on and one is obviously the guest beer then that is the one to avoid. The regular beer, and it's nearly always Harvey's Best, is probably selling well but the guest ale is likely not. You can guess the rest. At the Hove Park Tavern I went for the Tetley's no 3, if only to see whether the resurrection of this long-forgotten brew had been successful. I should have known better. The beer had either been sitting in the barrel too long, or maybe the pipes; possibly both. Either way, it was awful.
The Blind Busker is a more congenial establishment but it still came as a surprise to me when it made last year's Good Beer Guide. The generic frontage, the prominent SkySports sign, the list of sports events coming up - none of these things recommended it to me. In fairness though, I have come across similar pubs in the area which turned out to be better than I expected. The Blind Busker did live down to my (lack of) expectations. Four cask ales were available when I visited from Greene King, Dark Star and St Austell. It was lively and busy but still not a pub I would go back to.
Despite a wholesale refurb, sprightly is the last word I would apply to the Hove Park Tavern. My last visit here, on my way home from a wearing afternoon of Christmas shopping, must have been all of ten years ago when it was one of the grottiest pubs in Brighton. It's quite a feat to spend as much money on a pub as Enterprise (or Ei Group, as they now style themselves) have here and for it to remain a pub you'd want to avoid. The pool table is new, so are the games machines and the bar looks genuinely impressive but the beer ...
OK, here's the thing. Something that I have discovered during my exhaustive pub visits is that when a a pub has only two cask ales on and one is obviously the guest beer then that is the one to avoid. The regular beer, and it's nearly always Harvey's Best, is probably selling well but the guest ale is likely not. You can guess the rest. At the Hove Park Tavern I went for the Tetley's no 3, if only to see whether the resurrection of this long-forgotten brew had been successful. I should have known better. The beer had either been sitting in the barrel too long, or maybe the pipes; possibly both. Either way, it was awful.
The Blind Busker is a more congenial establishment but it still came as a surprise to me when it made last year's Good Beer Guide. The generic frontage, the prominent SkySports sign, the list of sports events coming up - none of these things recommended it to me. In fairness though, I have come across similar pubs in the area which turned out to be better than I expected. The Blind Busker did live down to my (lack of) expectations. Four cask ales were available when I visited from Greene King, Dark Star and St Austell. It was lively and busy but still not a pub I would go back to.
'Spoons or something similar?
There is one Wetherspoons establishment in central Hove and that's the Cliftonville Inn in George Street. It's one of their smaller pubs and it's on one floor, but it's always busy. The pub directly opposite used to be the Slug and Lettuce but has now been turned by its owners, Stonegate, into the George Street Tap. I've already come across some shoddy makeovers on my wanderings around Hove but this one strikes me as both pointless and mismanaged. The Slug and Lettuce is a brand name for a range of family-oriented bars. They tend to be brash but OK, if that's what you're after. The George Street branch always seemed busy so why the re-branding?
Yes, there are plenty of taps, and there is cask ale too, but in both cases the names are nearly all predictable. Cask comes from - you've probably guessed it already - Harvey's Best and Doombar - while the craft brews are mostly what you might call corporate craft: Brewdog, Meantime, Beavertown and Camden. The beer quality is only so-so but the decor is awful. The tables are raised, in the style that has been adopted by most micropubs, but the lighting is bright and comes from several rows of those retina-burning bulbs that you get in theatre dressing rooms.
The Station is loud and brash, like a Wetherspoons for the under 40s. It's a Greene King house and sports four handpumps but only one, offering their IPA, was in use when I visited. They have the standard "craft" offering, from Brewdog, Brooklyn, Goose Island and Beavertown. In fairness, this is a pub that advertises its USP with huge, full-length windows and a massive, painted board that reads "Craft and cask beers", "Live sports", "Oven-baked pizzas" and "Wines and spirits". I didn't like it but it's always full so what do I know?
The Better Half was probably a traditional back street local in a former existence. According to What Pub, its previous identities include as the Red Lion, the Sea Horse and the Mary Pack. Now it seems to be aiming for the craft beer market but missing. The cask offering is sound, with Harvey's, Bedlam and Long Man all represented, plus the newly trendy Timothy Taylor Landlord, but I could only see Gun amongst the familiar keg options. It's a nicely fitted out establishment and clearly popular but there are better nearby.
Is it a bar? Is it a cafe?
If you walk along New Church Road in either direction you will notice that pretty much every other retail outlet is either a restaurant, pub or a bar. Increasingly, it's difficult to tell which is which. You have wine bars, like Hixon Green, specialist venues like the Gin Tub and cafe/diners, where you can sit and the bar, waiting for a table or just ... pretending to wait on a table. 7 Bone falls into this category. I have excluded most of these establishments; my criteria for inclusion being that (a) you must be able to get a drink and not be obliged to eat as well and (b) that drink must be served via cask or craft keg.
The Modelo Lounge is of recent vintage and is part of a chain that also includes the Alcampo Lounge, in Brighton's London Road. The chain is aiming - surprise surprise! - for the families market and has a decent food offering. They have no cask ales but seem to have a better awareness of the craft beer scene than some, as they offer beers from Bath Ales and Bristol Beer Factory. The BBF brew is a rather mediocre APA but the Bath Dark Side Stout is a fine ale, packing a mighty punch considering that its ABV is a fairly modest 4.0%. They also have Goose Island 312 on keg.
Two other newish cafe bars are to be found just off New Church Road, and both are smart, if similarly bland. Libation is well-appointed and smallish, and seems to be after the young professionals market. I visited early on a Friday evening when the place had been taken over by what looked like a white-collar works outing. They only offer one cask ale - Harvey's Best, natch - but sadly no interesting kegs and little of interest in bottles or cans.
Things are rather better at nearby Hove Place. A long basement bar, it is broken up into three separate areas with a solid food menu and three cask ales: Harvey's Best, Dark Star Hophead and Long Man Best Bitter. Unlike Libation this feels like a bar that does food, not the other way round.
Gastro Pubs
 |
| Cocktails and Cask at the Ginger Pig |
The next three venues would probably describe themselves as gastro-pubs. I'm not sure that that term fits the Ginger Pig. As you enter, the bar is on your left and the restaurant is on the right. I went in the bar and, on a busy Friday evening, felt like the only person in there that wasn't waiting on a table. The bar staff were mostly busy mixing cocktails.
There was just one cask ale available and when I saw that it was Harvey's Best my spirits did not soar. However, if you've read this far and you've read my earlier posts on Hove and Portslade, you'll be aware of two things: one, that Harvey's Best is available in at least 50% of the pubs that I've covered and two, that it's not a beer that I'm especially fond of. So it came as a great surprise to discover that the Harvey's Best at the Ginger Pig was by a considerable distance the best pint of the beer that I've supped anywhere in Hove. Well done, chaps. You clearly don't spend all your time mixing cocktails!
The other two gastro pubs are within a short walk of each other and both accessible from Tesco's car park. Both used to be dives and both have been turned around. The Foragers is a small pub with two bars and a nice atmosphere. They have two cask ales and I was mightily impressed that one was Cellar Head Session IPA. Sadly, it seemed to be suffering the usual fate of the guest ale. My pint tasted as though it had been sitting in the pipes too long.
The other gastro pub, however, is a cracker. I used to think of the Urchin as a hidden gem but after they bagged second place in the pubs section of the BRAVO awards recently I don't think they can fairly be called hidden any longer. They have a most impressive menu which leans heavily towards shellfish and the beer selection is about as good.They have two casks: Harvey's Best and Long Man Best but it's on the kegs that they score. Rodenbach Grand Cru, no less, is usually available and the other five taps offer brews from the likes of Burning Sky, the Kernel, Wild Beer, Tiny Rebel and Siren. They also now brew their own beers under the Larrikin name.
Getting it right
Hove Actually boasts two Laine establishments and, along with Aldrington's Ancient Mariner, they show that, alone of Brighton's pubcos, Laine have embraced craft beer and are getting it right. I could be picky and say that they rarely have more than a couple of cask ales but as I'm about to praise a bar that doesn't sell any cask ales at all it would be wrong of me to do so. Their fondness for trashy, eclectic posters and boards, and interiors that seem aimed at indie poseurs, is especially in evidence at the Exchange, which did have Gun's terrific Zamzana IPA on cask on my most recent visit.They also had brews from Laine, Dorking and Bedlam. Kegs were mostly Laine's own brews.
At the Old Albion, we reach peak Laine and they have got this one absolutely right. The eccentric decor here really does work - that clock! - but more to the point they have a list of ten taps which, on a recent visit, included brews from Big Hug, Northern Monk, Camden, Ampersand, Wild Beer and Pomona Island. The only cask was Dark Star APA but that's still one hell of a line-up. And out of that lot you gotta have Faith!
More crafts even than Bison Craft House? Yes but the Bison team are still the market leaders when it comes to reflecting the constant change in the craft beer world. Size-wise, the tiny bar just down from Palmeira Square, would almost qualify as a micro-pub if they did sell cask ale. They don't; what they have are six constantly changing brews on tap and a wall of fridges with cans and bottles which, like the kegs, cover the nation, plus beers from Belgium and the US.
As you might imagine from its prime position, Bison's Hove branch has a customer base which is roughly 50% locals and 50% beer tourists. You don't see regulars the same way you would at, say, the Watchmakers, but what you do see is people arriving in groups. It's a place to meet. You also see very few people drinking pints, not even me, but given the fact that there are usually at least two brews at 6% plus, maybe that's as well!
And speaking of the Watchmakers Arms, this is the perfect bar to finish this survey with because for me the micropub sits squarely at the centre of the traditional vs modern continuum. The micropub revolution began in 2005 when Martyn Hillier opened the Butchers Arms in Herne Bay. His rules were strict: no music, no food, no TV, ales on cask. And like the Butchers Arms, the Watchmakers takes its name from its former existence and owners Dave, Ali, Rick and Ruth have used that identity to drive the decor.
It's a narrow space with tables along both sides and plenty of standing space in the middle. The bar is at the far end and behind it is the cool room where the beers are racked. There are always five ales on cask, five ciders and two keg lines. The owners are big fans of traditional English bitter and there are always a couple of modern takes on the style, generally from the likes of Downland, Franklins, Cellar Head and Vibrant Forest or, increasingly, brewed by Rick himself. There's always a dark ale available too. Because of the absence of frills and their small size, micropubs encourage conversation and the best ones, like the Watchmakers, are as friendly and convivial as the best traditional pubs ever were. There's even a house dog, Muffin, and visiting dogs are positively encouraged. Woof!
At the Old Albion, we reach peak Laine and they have got this one absolutely right. The eccentric decor here really does work - that clock! - but more to the point they have a list of ten taps which, on a recent visit, included brews from Big Hug, Northern Monk, Camden, Ampersand, Wild Beer and Pomona Island. The only cask was Dark Star APA but that's still one hell of a line-up. And out of that lot you gotta have Faith!
More crafts even than Bison Craft House? Yes but the Bison team are still the market leaders when it comes to reflecting the constant change in the craft beer world. Size-wise, the tiny bar just down from Palmeira Square, would almost qualify as a micro-pub if they did sell cask ale. They don't; what they have are six constantly changing brews on tap and a wall of fridges with cans and bottles which, like the kegs, cover the nation, plus beers from Belgium and the US.
As you might imagine from its prime position, Bison's Hove branch has a customer base which is roughly 50% locals and 50% beer tourists. You don't see regulars the same way you would at, say, the Watchmakers, but what you do see is people arriving in groups. It's a place to meet. You also see very few people drinking pints, not even me, but given the fact that there are usually at least two brews at 6% plus, maybe that's as well!
And speaking of the Watchmakers Arms, this is the perfect bar to finish this survey with because for me the micropub sits squarely at the centre of the traditional vs modern continuum. The micropub revolution began in 2005 when Martyn Hillier opened the Butchers Arms in Herne Bay. His rules were strict: no music, no food, no TV, ales on cask. And like the Butchers Arms, the Watchmakers takes its name from its former existence and owners Dave, Ali, Rick and Ruth have used that identity to drive the decor.
It's a narrow space with tables along both sides and plenty of standing space in the middle. The bar is at the far end and behind it is the cool room where the beers are racked. There are always five ales on cask, five ciders and two keg lines. The owners are big fans of traditional English bitter and there are always a couple of modern takes on the style, generally from the likes of Downland, Franklins, Cellar Head and Vibrant Forest or, increasingly, brewed by Rick himself. There's always a dark ale available too. Because of the absence of frills and their small size, micropubs encourage conversation and the best ones, like the Watchmakers, are as friendly and convivial as the best traditional pubs ever were. There's even a house dog, Muffin, and visiting dogs are positively encouraged. Woof!
.jpg)
Comments
Post a Comment