BITE user comments - Joan_Crawford
Comments by Joan_Crawford
The review below is for the wrong pub.
Have beena sking the site tro take it down (it was just an honest mistake) for the last year, but still it sits here...
8 Sep 2008 14:44
Opposite stage door of Hippodrome, and decorated with lots of old show posters randomly pasted on the wall.
Staff and clientele tend to the goth, though plenty of other types in as well.
Popular for pre-gig drink, as close to several venues.
Also does 'open mike' talent nights, wherein the deluded but confident strum and caterwaul.
Excellent stuff!
Beer is fine (someone else will have to tell us what) and the atmosphere is pretty friendly.
Suspect a few people were put off when the 'G' fell off the name lettering and wasn't replaced for some time.
Basically, the B O G is a good thing.
11 Apr 2008 16:27
I spoke to the then new landlord about a year ago, but haven't been back since.
He said that he had taken a golden handshake from Endemol, and was using the money to extend upwards, start a fine dining operation, and generally really make the most of the site.
How did he get on?
FWIW, the beer, staff and punters were fine when I was there.
19 Dec 2007 15:32
What everyone else says.
Although anyone visiting after a few years break will be disappointed that the murals from its time as Socialist Central have been removed.
The 1950s motorbike magazines in the small bar are a nice touch, mind.
19 Dec 2007 15:28
More like the bar of a slightly upmarket Madrid Hotel.
Not really a pub, but excellent place for a drink.
Proper cocktails properly made, cold wheat beer, intelligent staff.
After normal weekend pub closing time, they politely decline to let any louts in.
Excellent choice to butter up the spouse, or anyone else for that matter.
24 Oct 2007 16:32
Amazing site - it really is a black castle.
Well, large Victorian building styled as a castle - turrets, courtyard.
Black because the stone it is built from was quarried from alongside the colamines that gave the original owner his fortune, apparently.
And inside - chrome, plastic, neon, plasma tv, pool tables, pints of 'wife beater'.
Chav central.
So, so, sad
24 Oct 2007 16:19
Returned recently.
Still on the same path as a year ago.
I hate to say it, but really needs a new landlord.
Or new owners, or something.
Otherwise, it will soon be a total toilet.
24 Oct 2007 16:11
The Tuckers Grave Inn, Faulkland
No bar, just sort of stand in front of a space while your beer or cider is poured from the barrels behind the landlord.
Big furniture, nice to sit outside in summer and gaze across the fields.
The cider is lethal, most folk are pretty jolly, fires are good, and the picture above really doesn't do it justice.
Although, it doesn't bother me enough to upload one of my own (ahem).
Apparently, Tucker was a 19th century landlord of the establishment, who got into debt and hing himself on the premises.
24 Oct 2007 15:56
The Watershed Cafe Bar, Bristol
Nice for a jar before or after the flicks (Watershed cinema in same building).
Trendy crowd, same sort of deal as the Chapter in Cardiff, that sort of thing.
Nice beer, but they do know how to charge - �3.25 for one organic lager, even Bath Gem (common enough these days) is �2.90.
Then, it isn't meant to be a 'boozer'.
Good people watching too.
24 Oct 2007 15:45
Local, verging on the threatening.
Not very nice, really.
Mind you, compared to the Apple Tree round the corner...
24 Oct 2007 15:24
Great pub football team, feared throughout the league.
Pub is a bit, um...
Great football team!
24 Oct 2007 15:16
Used to drink in here a long time ago.
Sounds about the same, if the reviews are anything to go by.
If The Farm at St Werburghs was Glastonbury, then this place was 'beanfield' era Stonehenge.
Not everyone, obviously.
Is Duncan still the landlord?
24 Oct 2007 15:14
Can't believe no reviews posted.
Opposite stage door of Hippodrome, and decorated with lots of old show posters randomly pasted on the wall.
Staff and clientele tend to the goth, though plenty of other types in as well.
Popular for pre-gig drink, as close to several venues.
Also does 'open mike' talent nights, wherein the deluded but confident strum and caterwaul.
Excellent stuff!
Beer is fine (someone else will have to tell us what) and the atmosphere is pretty friendly.
Suspect a few people were put off when the 'G' fell off the name lettering and wasn't replaced for somje time.
basically, the B O G is a good thing.
23 Oct 2007 17:20
Used to be purely serviceable.
I hear that 'Hidden' will be taking this over.
Is that true?
Any dates?
Am particularly curious as this pub is technically my local (actually the Ostrich is), but I've preferred the Shakespeare until now.
23 Oct 2007 16:47
Nice, large, Fullers pub.
Much polished wood.
Full range of well kept Fullers.
Haven't tried the Thai fare.
Don't know why they have the big telly's - even when they are on, a lot of the clientele just aren't interested.
Might do better to make a selling point of not having them, since central Bristol is more than adequately served in this regard.
I digress - basically sound, though not life-changing
4 Jan 2007 18:27
Typical big city centre pub.
Big screen, reasonable beer selection, i.e. not wall to wall chemical fizz.
Staff always friendly and helpful.
Used to go for footie, and occasional post-travail libation, for which it is adequately suited.
Other reviews seem okay, so not sure why the 2.5 rating.
Would someone out there care to expand on their reasoning?
4 Jan 2007 18:20
I submitted this in early November, but obviously it went astray.
Earlydrinker is correct in all details.
And no, the telly doesn't intrude.
Also do proper bottled fruit beers.
Good bar staff - had a cracking Hallowe'en, with the staff dressed all ghoulish and a pumpkin carving competition (with big knives - not things that you'd hand out in every boozer).
Can tend to the old bloke-ish on occasion, but otherwise most agreeable.
4 Jan 2007 18:06
A boat in the centre (near King Street and Welsh Back).
Sells 40 odd ciders - about 30 bottled, and 10 or so draught.
Tried Riches, Weston Rosie, and another (can't remember).
All as agricultural as I remember, but, like many places, possibly not realising that unless it is absolutely fresh, it needs to be served at really quite a low temperature.
Bottles were varied, and my chums gave the thumbs up.
Went early, but apparently quite lively later on.
Fairly new, and deserving of our support, I would say.
Pieminister pies, if you like that sort of thing.
Agreeable staff.
Also plenty of rums, and a lager pump.
Needs a review from later in the evening, and/or the weekend.
Definitely worth a visit.
3 Nov 2006 13:28
Please bear in mind when reading the reviews below that 'Gravenor' is the name above the door.
Oh - you'd already guessed.
3 Nov 2006 12:37
I'm with TWG on this one.
Selling interesting real ales in an environment that doesn't include horse brasses and bearded blokes with 'Trowbridge Pump' t-shirts has to be a good way to win hearts and minds.
The exposed pipes semi industrial environment will split opinion, but doesn't stop the concept being valid, or the beer very nice.
3 Nov 2006 12:15
Next door to where I occasionally have to visit for work.
Gloomy, really, but in a good way.
Beer okay, but cheap.
Top mirrors, plasterwork, tiling and so on - hope this restoration that I'm hearing about is only that
3 Nov 2006 11:07
Went last Sunday at 5pm.
Over amplified and under talented guitarist with Casio entertained us.
Quite busy, very smoky, lots of people really quite smashed.
Odd atmosphere for a Sunday afternoon - felt close to going a bit wrong, if you know what I mean.
Necked a pint of something (6X ?) which seemed fine.
3 Nov 2006 10:49
The Marble Beer House, Chorlton cum Hardy
Guardian reading crowd of a certain age.
Being a Guardian reader of a certain age, this wasn't really a problem for me.
One barmaid was friendly and useless, the other less cahatty, but far more efficient.
Beer wasn't all that, in fairness, but had a good crack even so.
3 Nov 2006 10:42
This is top hole. I'm a sucker for that whole Victorian tile thing, which this place does in spades.
The back bar/eatery is a bit odd mind - puts me in mind of a 1950s fish and chip restaurant.
Not necessarily a bad thing, just saying.
And the beer and the food were all good, Fefinitely worth a visit.
3 Nov 2006 10:39
Recent refurb. Smartened up, nothing over the top. Pleasant enough boozer.
And really quite large.
Not open until until 7pm weekdays, mind.
Low nutter quotient.
2 Nov 2006 16:41
One of the few pubs where local city centre white collar workers can actually find a space and a decent beer in a normal boozer at 6pm on a Thursday and Friday.
Which has to be a good thing.
2 Nov 2006 16:35
Haven't been for a while.
If it still has the nailed down furniture, rotgut cider and unpredictable denizens, then that would explain the 4.5/10, mind.
2 Nov 2006 16:28
Timewarp interior. There's a story pinned behind the bar about how an 80's refurb revealed all the gilt and so forth that had been covered up for 50 years or more.
And they serve Rum and Shrub, and Brandy and Lovage.
Pity the service bells in the back bar don't work, though.
Generally populated with real people (as opposed to kids or swaggering arseholes or opinionated gits)
Most agreeable.
2 Nov 2006 16:24
It really is tiny, but very jolly with it.
Good Bath Ales.
Tables on the pavement in summer don't really evoke that continental vibe, but nice enough even so.
2 Nov 2006 16:17
A crumbling wreck, only held up by the mystical forces emanating from the ancient burial grounds upon which it sits.
It is rather splendid.
2 Nov 2006 13:35
The Black Horse, Clapton in Gordano
This is a country pub, as in folk with shotguns and red noses shouting 'Bess!' at excitable black labradors.
Big real fire, flagstone floor, outside beer hatch.
Alan Archer and Shula often drop in.
2 Nov 2006 13:27
Going downhill rapidly.
Exterior paintwork blistered and flyblown.
The estate pubs over the Wells Road closed, and now their more lively clientele congregate in the public bar, leading to an increase in emotionally intense discussions.
The lounge hasn't had a lick of paint in years.
Landlord not seemingly interested in much apart from chatting to his cronies.
The younger bar staff are generally okay.
Very smoky - you come out stinking of fags after just a few minutes. Worse than just about any other establishment.
Shame, because the potential is there - the area is ripe for a relatively smart pub, and the site and size of the place are good.
It just isn't going to happen under the current unimaginative management.
No, I won't be walking past The George to get to here in the future.
2 Nov 2006 12:25
Don't knock it too much. They've tried to create a pub in an almost impossible location, and made a reasonable stab at it.
All the usual Weatherspoon virtues and vices.
For a straightener directly before or after a train journey, it's probably a better choice than the staion bar, or the Reckless Engineer.
2 Nov 2006 12:15
Back to Joan_Crawford's profile
The Bunch of Grapes, Bristol
Jaycey (previous poster): sounds like you need to use the 'licensee' section of this site.
And, an_ecunemical_matter simply posted something in good faith. No need to be snippy, it does you no credit.
19 Nov 2008 13:40