Where are the best pubs? Where can you walk in, be guaranteed a warm welcome, and get an impeccable pint of beer? Let’s find out.
As it starts its 20th anniversary year, I’m adding a pub guide to Beer Today. Not to compete with any other pub guide. That would be a foolish errand which would take up far too much of my time. I’m thinking of a snapshot, zeitgeist guide. A focus on the best places to drink now. No publication deadline, just pubs added constantly (and deleted as quickly, if necessary).
The focus will be on pubs, but I’m going to include taprooms and bars, too. All will be checked out before being added to the guide, using contacts and source I’ve built up these past 20 years!
Last year wasn’t a great year for pubs. It’s bad enough that energy and business rates costs are forcing many to close their doors without the likes of the Crooked House saga to further reduce the hostelry landscape. Those remaining open must be treasured and used regularly, and the real jewels in the crown — and those reading this will have their own ideas of the venues that fall into this category — must be supported, especially during these quieter late winter months.
So where are the places that put a smile on your face, where you four-legged friend perhaps gets a great welcome, too, where the beer quality never dips (unless by accident, perhaps, and a brew is immediately snatched back and a pumpclip turned around), where the sheer enthusiasm and charisma of the bar team draws you in.
Let me know, and let’s get these venues highlighted and promoted throughout 2024. There’s just one rule. These places must be independent and not part of one of those big property-focused pubcos (estates belonging to independent breweries are fine). I’ve started adding a few (in the background, to be published any day), the ones that I personally know and love. Now it’s open to all. The Beer Today readers’ own personally-curated guide.
Email me, or DM via social media. Oh, and Happy New Year all!
