Category: Awards

The Porter Cottage is on Sharrow Vale Road, just behind Ecclesall Road. Tim and Mandy Price have been in charge for 25 years. It is believed the pub was an old coaching inn established 150 years ago, subsequently acquired by Duncan Gilmour and then Tetley. It is now part of Wear Inns based in Castle Eden, Co Durham. The handpumps dispense Bradfield Farmers Blond and Bitter (and Belgian Blue when available) together with Abbeydale Deception and Sharps Doombar, as well as a guest beer usually from Saltaire or Kelham Island. For cider lovers there’s Weston’s Wildwood. Quiz nights are Tuesday and Sunday, and from 4 to 6pm on the second Sunday each month is an acoustic session with various artists, and  at the same time on the 4th Sunday there’s live blues in conjunction with the Honey Bee Blues Club and Martin Bedford. The Porter Cottage is open from 5pm Mon – Thurs, and from 12 noon Fri – Sun. The Cottage is a well run friendly pub with a good local following, and there’s a nationally acclaimed alternative jukebox. So it’s well done to Mandy, Tim and their team. Derek Longford The Pub of the Month award will be presented on Tuesday 8th December from 8pm. Nearest bus stop is Hunters Bar on routes 81,82,83,83a,88,272.

The Devonshire Cat has been a well known Sheffield ale house for as long as I’ve been drinking in Sheffield, however in January last year it was taken over by Abbeydale Brewery and had a new lease of life breathed into it.  Its 12 handpumps always include Moonshine, Deception, Absolution, Dev Cat Bitter  and Dev Cat Stout  as  house beers, served as you would expect in impeccable condition.  The range of guests from near and far has improved greatly too under Abbeydales excellent stewardship, and any patron should look out for the  ‘Jazz Marque’ awarded to to the guest beer on the bar he deemed best by Assistant Manager Jon ‘Jazzy’ Stevens. Like most successful pubs these days the Devonshire Cat also serves up some fine food, alongside its ales, with a menu with something for everyone. If you’ve not eaten here before definitely give it a go.  The Dev Cat also boasts 14 keg lines, an excellent bottle selection and a wonderful spirit list thats well worth perusing and sampling.  The pub has an events list to cater to all, weekly Monday pub quizzes, regular tasting nights are held with Starmore Boss, the recent “CatFest”, and regular promotions on different beer and bottle styles. As ever though a list of attributes like great beer, great food, quizzes etc does not necessarily make a great pub.  The atmosphere, the staff, the belief in quality and the over riding sense that the pub is a haven for people to visit, to enjoy , to try something new, to meet friends and socialise is all encapsulated here, right in the centre of Sheffield.  Abbeydale and their dedicated enthusiastic team have reinvigorated this pub and made it a must visit destination in Sheffield. Andy Stephens The Devonshire Cat is on Wellington Street in Sheffield City Centre, a short walk from public transport at West Street or Moorfoot. We’ll be presenting the certificate on the evening of Tuesday 10th November, all are welcome to join us for a pint!

Shakespeare’s, Gibralter Street. I’m sure I’m not the first CAMRA member to have moved home to make a favoured pub my “local” but this was the case almost two years ago when I decided to move from Doncaster to Sheffield as proximity to Shakespeare’s on Gibraltar Street was a very important factor my in flat-hunting. The pub was opened as The Shakespeare in 1821 as a Georgian coaching inn on the site of an earlier establishment dating back to the 18^th Century. After experiencing mixed fortunes under a succession of licensees in the late 90s and early ‘noughties’ it closed its doors in January 2010. Subsequently purchased and restored by real ale and music fan William Wagstaff it reopened as Shakespeare’s just in time for Tramlines in July 2011. The small front bar to the right on entering is the heart of the pub – containing the bar itself and the regularly updated “Shakesbeers” board. This is a lovely place to enjoy the fine beers on offer when the pub is quiet but can become quite congested at weekends.  To the left is a side room dominated by a superb grandfather clock. Two distinct drinking areas with barrel tables and bar stool seating are located to the rear of the bar and through here to the right is a long back room which was originally a passageway for coaching horses (and subsequently brewery drays). Now known as The Archway this is furnished with long ‘picnic tables’ & benches, a darts board and a classic jukebox (recently returned to working order). The walls here are decorated with a huge array of pump clips, beer mats and posters. The large garden to the rear of the pub is very popular on warmer days, with the enclosed area to the left having been the stable back in coaching inn days. Upstairs is the renowned “Bard’s Bar” which hosts a varied programme of gigs and the very popular monthly King Bee night, as well as meetings, private parties and even book launches. It’s been a great pleasure to see my favourite band (Sheffield’s own High Hazels) play here three times – and two of the band’s videos were partially filmed in the pub!  Also upstairs is a small games room with darts, bar billiards, table football and a selection of board games. Moving on to the all important beer there’s always 9 cask ales on sale (over 3,250 in the four years since the pub reopened) and it’s the range and quality of these that quite rightly wins plaudit upon plaudit from discerning drinkers looking for something a little different to/over and above the norm. Beers from highly regarded UK breweries such as Hopcraft, Siren Craft, Buxton & Mallinson’s regularly feature alongside fine local breweries including Steel City and Blue Bee. Abbeydale Deception is the one regular beer – always popular and at a very reasonable £2.30 per pint. The guest beers are also competitively priced given their calibre and (in many cases) rarity. When the pub is quiet the helpful and knowledgeable staff are happy to serve any beer from the cellar that’s tapped and ready to drink. The ‘less traditionally minded’ beer connoisseur can now enjoy at least three quality keg beers from pioneering breweries in the US, UK and Europe. There’s also three cask ciders and a superb selection of over 100 single malts. Food (very commendably in the author’s opinion) is limited to good value (70p) filled bread rolls, Stobart’s pork pies and a range of bar snacks in the shape of crisps, pork scratchings and nuts. Although the main criterion for any CAMRA award has to be the availability of a range of high-quality cask beers (clearly achieved with flying colours in this case!) a pub can only be as good as its staff – and here Shakespeare’s excels yet again. Manager Chris Bamford has been there from the start and what he doesn’t know about sourcing and caring for quality beer really isn’t worth knowing. Chris is very ably supported by Assistant Managers Chris Wadsworth and Keisha Wright, together with the wonderful bar team of Wendy, Louis, Lizzie & James.  All, and many of the lovely “regulars”, have become friends. Downstairs the strong musical links continue – with ‘Sheffield Rapper’ early Monday evenings, Ceilidh sessions in the back room on Tuesdays and ‘sing-arounds’ in the front side room on Wednesdays.  The pub also plays a major role in the “Sheffield Sessions” annual Folk Festival. Chris hosts an excellent quiz every Thursday at 9:30pm (fans of the Bard will no doubt appreciate the eloquent rendition of an extract from one of his works which forms the basis of Question 25). The ‘Shakey’ appeals to a wide cross-section of people including musicians, artists, writers, theatre and studio staff and students as well as CAMRA members and other beer connoisseurs from all over the UK (and often even further afield). The presentation of this richly deserved Pub Of the Month award will take place on Tuesday 15^th September at approximately 8pm. All are welcome to attend – it’s bound to be a fine evening Martin Clark