Bristol Inn, Clevedonback to pub details please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
I don’t make a habit of reviewing pubs that I’ve not had a drink in but I’m going to make an exception in this case, so apologies if the description of the establishment is a little brief. I had avoided this pub for many years as it had a slightly unsavoury reputation, not rough as such, but frequented by teenagers who drank too much. However, I heard that it had been refurbished and was under new management, so I was keen to give it another go.
It’s a good sized pub, only a couple of minutes stroll from the triangle, but located in a side street so many people who don’t know the town well might not realise it’s there. It appears to be largely one open room split across two levels, with a cosier lounge area around one corner although this was in darkness on a recent visit. Facilities include a juke box and this was playing slightly too loudly I felt, but then my age group is clearly not the pub’s target market.
We had been stood at the bar for some time despite nobody else waiting. It would appear that the heavily tattooed barman was unable to serve us as he was part way through a transaction on the till with another punter who had disappeared. After being told three or four times that he would be “with us in a second” we gave up and went elsewhere. To be honest though, I didn’t need much encouragement to move on. Neither the pub’s clientele or their drinking habits seem to have changed, and whilst there was certainly no hostility, we nonetheless felt rather uncomfortable.
There were three or four hand pumps on the bar, but only one was in use dispensing something fairly mainstream such as Doom Bar if I recall correctly. Ciders were better represented with Thatcher’s Gold, Thatcher’s Dry and Blackthorn.
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A medium to large sized pub. Butcombe and doombar were the ales, the butcombe was up to mark. pub with a reasonably sized garden. Barmaid was very friendly.
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Tried this pub for food/drink..Guess what the best thing to do here,is close the place. Nobody seemed to give a hoot about you spending your hard earned on food/ale..An influx of suspect individuals,and so forth,tells the tale..Glad i walked out,,sday no more...
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Late ninteties-2005 - Succession of temp managers who gave progressively less of a sh1t about maintaining the place or providing a decent service. Gone right down hill to point of becoming charlie sniffing and punch up centre of Clevedon by 2005. Run by rugby "club" losers.
2005 - present - Rejoice! Vastly improved beer, food, decor, staff and pretty much everything down to work of Andy & Dawn and present tenants
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87-93 - Landlord "Frosty", good beer (no idea what food was like - skint student), full of jitters and indie types, excellent rock juke box, lots of seperate rooms which allowed you to claim your own corner.
93-97(ish) - Landlord Norman, bit punchy and grumpy but ok. Food and beer ok. Refit demolished most of internal walls giving rise to nasty "aircraft hangar" atomosphere. Jukebox replaced by piped music, beginning of Chav era. Sky Sports!
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Still probably the bes pub in Clevedon, now with new owners Tracey and Joe who are doing a good job of sprucing the place up.
Menus a bit lacking but the Sunday roast is supposed to be good, also tasty rolls behind the bar and hot dogs during the footy, all for a quid.(Oh and they sell awesome pork scratchings!)
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it was much better when it was just the bristol, anyone remeber the landlord then, a guy called norman i think, had great bands plenty of fun nights and the discos were outstanding
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the food is very expensive here, you can the same food for cheaper in the crab apple pub on the other side of town, with less drunken kiddies swaggering about too.
jimmy - 3 Dec 2003 12:00 |
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