Category: Pub of the Month Winners

My history with The Commercial runs not nearly as deep as it does for many, nor does my frequency of patronage approach anything that might offer me license to think of myself as a regular. These things notwithstanding, I felt instantly compelled to nominate this fine establishment for a PotM award when I was last leaning upon their most estimable bar, learning that they were eligible again (their last nomination was quite some time ago). The occasion of said visit is itself reason enough to justify the nomination, since I was there to present the landlord with an award to acknowledge a noteworthy achievement, namely, 20 consecutive years in The Good Beer Guide. I can vividly recall my first visit to The Commercial, for ‘twas a day upon which I was returning to Sheffield from Leeds. A friend offered to drive me and another down, rather than have us catch the train. The driver was to visit his family in Chapeltown, so it seemed like a sensible marriage of objectives. Upon arriving into Sheffield’s northernmost parts, it was suggested we visit The Commercial to help alleviate the symptoms of our previous night’s indulgence. Walking in, it immediately became clear that the choice to have a Saturday afternoon beer in this particular spot was no accident. The bar was a forest of beer engines (at that time, serving numerous ales from the now defunct Wentworth Brewery), there was an abundance of polished wood and brass… and a dartboard! That particular afternoon slipped by in perfect contentment and it was a shame that we couldn’t stay there (upright) all day. I always look forward to returning to The Commercial and take opportunities to introduce the place, wherever necessary, to those that have yet to have had the pleasure. Of course, there are all sorts of things that recommend this pub to its patrons, chief among these being the terrifically popular monthly whisky tasting events, the hearty food, the friendly staff and the indefatigable landlord. I find the Commercial, at once, remarkable yet unremarkable. It is a place of plain, winsome beauty that serves glorious, well-conditioned beer. In short, it is an unadulterated delight to spend time in Chapeltown’s most decorated public house. Patrick Johnson

Serving real ales now for over 7 years, this former 1960s estate pub has reinvented itself as a real ale haven. The Ale House is a hidden gem. A true free house serving 6 ever-changing cask ales from a wide variety of breweries both local and from further afield, including Drone Valley, Saltaire, Hambletons, Dancing Duck and Dark Star. These are complemented by keg beers, ciders and Sam Smith’s lagers. With practical support from local volunteers, this dog and child friendly pub has become a firm favourite with all who use it; a proper community pub. Regular events include home-made food every Friday evening and a pub quiz on Thursdays. There are also occasional tasting evenings of gin, vodka, whisky and beers. A function room is available for hire for a variety of events, weddings, wakes, parties and all kinds of celebrations. Occasional live music nights are advertised on the pub’s Facebook site. Current beers and Friday menus can also be found there. Al We’ll be down at the Ale House to present their pub of the month winners certificate on the evening of Tuesday 13th August, from 8pm, all are welcome to join us for a beer or two! The pub is at the bottom end of Fraser Road, just off Archer Road in Millhouses, where bus 86 will get you to.

Congratulations to the Dog & Partridge for becoming a worthy winner of the Sheffield and District CAMRA Pub of The Month. This award is designed to highlight pubs serving good real ale in friendly and comfortable surroundings. The Dog scores on all points, with beer quality always high. To enjoy the celebrations, join us on Tuesday 11^th.June from 20:00 (presentation at 21:00). Dating back to 1796, The Dog and Partridge is a cosy multi-room dog-friendly pub in Sheffield city centre. Many activities take place onsite. These include folk events, games nights and a weekly quiz: 6.00 p.m. every Tuesday. Since early 2013, the Dog and Partridge has been led by Landlord, Conor Smith. Conor, and his team, utilise four hand-pumps to provide an ever-changing range of quality beers, mostly from local breweries: a regular Bitter (usually Stancil) and Stout (often Chantry), one pump dedicated to specials from Abbeydale with the fourth pump providing a wide range of guests. Recently these have included Ashover, Bad Seed, Blue Bee, Great Newsome and Magic Rock. They also serve ‘the best Guinness outside Dublin.’ A 10% discount is available for card-carrying CAMRA members. Previously Pub of the Month in March 2014, the Dog and Partridge is on the CAMRA Regional Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors: for pubs that are of ‘some regional importance’ (SRI), meaning that specific features are of sufficient quality for the pub to be considered noteworthy. Although the interior of four rooms has been opened-out and modernised, the original layout is still visible; there is some inter-war tiling on the right-hand side of the corridor into the pub and one nearly intact room. The central snug has been spared from excessive change. Cosy and genuinely historic, this little room retains its old fireplace, original door and fixed seating, with a wide panel above still having bell pushes from the days of table service. The fireplace is also very old but has a modern hearth. Graffiti, of various ages, is carved into the woodwork. 1974 plans proposed that this snug become a male toilet and the servery re-configured. Luckily, these alterations did not materialise. Further alterations in 1989 saw the pub extend into a neighbouring shop, creating the snug to the left of the entrance. The three-storey stone building also has good ‘DOG & PARTRIDGE GILMOURS WINDSOR ALES & STOUTS’ raised lettering on the fascia and an interesting sign above the entrance. The pub opens at 12 noon daily, closing at 11:00 p.m., Monday – Thursday, 11:30 Friday and Saturday and 10:00 p.m. on Sunday. Home-made food is available Tuesday – Saturday, lunchtimes and early evening (12-2 and 5-9).

• Dave Pickersgill

The Ale Club on Ecclesall Road is a relative newcomer to the Sheffield beer scene having only opened its doors in November 2017. However, over the last 18 months this micropub and bottle shop has gained a healthy reputation for its varied selection of real ales and craft beers and is a worthy winner of this month’s Pub of the Month award. For those who haven’t visited before, the Ale Club acts as the brewery tap for Sheffield-owned cuckoo brewery The Brew Foundation (the brewing is actually done at Wincle in Cheshire). Brewer James Eardley opened the bar in order to showcase some of the brewery’s offerings such as Little Bitter That (3.8% English bitter), Laughing Water (4.3% hoppy pale), Janet’s Treat (4.8% chocolate cherry porter), Wheat Your Heart Out (6.0% white IPA) and Free Beer (4.4% APA which is both gluten free and vegan!). There are five well-kept real ales on offer, always including at least one from the Brew Foundation range. Guest beers include interesting choices from well-known independent breweries such as Hawkshead and Blackjack, as well smaller local brewers including Lost Industry, Crosspool Ale Makers Society and Holmfirth’s Three Fiends Brewhouse. If you’re in search of craft beer you won’t be disappointed either with eight keg lines and more than 130 bottles and cans, ranging from the more traditional styles to juicy IPAs, big imperial stouts and funky Belgian gueuzes. Some of the UK’s biggest craft names such as Verdant, Cloudwater, Kernel and Northern Monk feature regularly. As well as having a great range of ales and beers, the Ale Club is a really interesting place to sit and enjoy them. Step through the door and you’re transported from the noise and bustle of Ecclesall Road into a world inspired by old-school private members’ clubs where the lighting is low and the walls and bookcases are adorned with knick-knacks and curiosities from around the globe. If the weather’s nice (and you get there early!) there are also a couple of tables out the front for those who prefer to imbibe al fresco. Congratulations to James and all the staff at the Ale Club on their award, which we hope will be the first of many. We will be handing over the certificate on Tuesday 14 May, as usual arriving from around 8pm for a presentation at 9pm. The pub is located at 429 Ecclesall Road, S11 8PG and is well served by local buses (65, 81, 82, 83, 88 and 272). Hope to see you there!

Hidden away behind West Street, the Red Deer on Pitt Street is definitely one of the gems of the City Centre real ale scene. Originally dating from 1825, the pub originally comprised three small rooms with a central bar area. This was opened out in the 1980s and the bar repositioned to provide the present format with an L-shaped lounge. The “gallery”, a raised area towards the rear of the pub, was added in 1993 and this leads on to a beer garden. Formerly a Tetley’s pub (and Gilmours before that), for many years in the early days of Sheffield & District CAMRA, the Red Deer was the regular meeting place for the branch, as it was one of the few Sheffield pubs to retain handpumps.

Licensee Jake Nickles took over the pub in August 2010, having previously worked in pubs and bars in London and the Midlands. His focus on customer service and real ale quickly re-established the pub’s reputation for showcasing quality cask beer. The bar displays an impressive range of eight real ales, with regular offerings from Blue Bee, Moorhouse’s and Welbeck Abbey, along with oft-changing guest beers. There is a hand-pulled cider too, whilst a good selection of malt whiskies is also available.

The Red Deer has been a prolific winner of our Pub of the Month accolade over the years, with the most recent award coming back in August 2015. As well as real ale drinkers, it remains popular with students from the nearby University of Sheffield, and since 2016 the gable end has featured a large mural of a girl reading a book, painted by Austrian artist Frau Isa.

The pub is open from noon-midnight Monday to Thursday, noon-1am Friday and Saturday, and noon-11pm Sunday. Quality pub food is available every day, and in recent years there has been a focus on vegan and vegetarian food, so everyone is catered to. On Tuesday evenings there is a fairly challenging pub quiz, plus regular live music Saturday nights and alternate Sundays. CAMRA members can enjoy a 10% discount on pints of real ale and real cider.

We will be presenting the Red Deer with their well-deserved award on Tuesday 12 March, arriving from 8pm onwards. We hope you can join us!

We first visited the Blake during the Sheffield Beer Census in June 2017 and were so impressed with it that we make a point of calling in whenever we are visiting friends in Walkley. Although we are neither local or regulars we are always made welcome.

Formerly part of the Stones brewery estate, the Blake is now owned by James Birkett, who also runs the Sheaf View and Wellington pubs, along with Neepsend Brewery. It’s a street corner pub with a central bar and three comfortable rooms, including one with a log burning stove for the cold nights. There’s also an outside sitting area for when it gets warmer.

On the bar you’ll find Neepsend Blonde plus 5 rotating guest ales, usually from small independent brewers. There’s also a good choice of international beers either on keg or in bottle and a scrumpy for cider lovers. On the shelves behind are over 180 different whiskies, plus a range of rums and gins. Pork pies are usually available as well as the usual snacks.

A major attraction of the Blake and the other pubs in this group is that they don’t have TVs or background music. You go there for the company and conversation. It’s surprising how many dog walkers find their way there too, and quiz lovers are welcome on a Wednesday.

It’s a great local – I wish it was nearer to where I live! You’ll find it open between 12 noon and 11.30pm seven days a week but it’s either uphill or downhill if you’re walking to this pub on Blake Street. A choice of either the 95 (Fulton Rd stop) or 31 buses will help get you there.

Malcolm Dixon

We will be presenting the Blake Hotel with their award on Tuesday 12 February, as usual arriving from around 8pm onwards for a presentation at 9pm. We hope you can join us!

Ever since I visited The Rat Race Ale House on the platform of Hartlepool Railway Station I have been enamoured with micropubs. I find that, by consequence of their size, people end up enjoying an evening with folks that they would never have encountered had the building afforded them the luxury of space to sit several tables apart. They therefore make for convivial places, and our November 2018 POTM winner is, as a micropub itself, no exception. The Autumn of 2016 saw long-time friends, Al and Charlie, open The Bar Stewards as a ‘pop-up pub’ in the already beer-dense area of Kelham Island. Temporary events licenses meant they could open on a limited number of weekends while they awaited the paperwork that would transform their enterprise into a permanent addition to the area’s public houses; a noble aim that was to become a reality in July 2017. The idea was always simple. Serve excellent beer and, in the words of Bill and Ted while on their trans-dimensional peregrinations, be excellent to each other. The popularity of this approach has seen a provision of four hand-pulls plus cider boxes expand to include six keg beer lines, and more recently, voluminous fridge space for on/off-sale cans and bottles. It is far from uncommon to see cask appearances made by the likes of Arbor, Tiny Rebel, Bristol Beer Factory, Great Heck, Abbeydale and North Riding, while keg beers are frequently seen from, inter alia, Verdant, Cloudwater, Northern Monk, Deya, Garage, Unity, Loka Polly, Magic Rock and Howling Hops. It is also clear that so much more lies in store for this successful micro. Indeed, just this summer saw the opening up of their outdoor space at the rear of the pub, an area which has been used to provide yet more sumptuous beers by setting up their mobile bar for special events. So here’s to another thoroughly deserving POTM winner. I have been an ardent supporter of this pub from day one and eagerly look forward to seeing The Bar Stewards continue to grow from strength to strength. Truly, these are fine years for a beer enthusiast to be alive. Patrick Johnson Join us at the Bar Stewards on Tuesday 13 November for the presentation of the award (and, of course, to enjoy a fine ale or two). We will be arriving from around 8pm onwards for a presentation at 9pm.

Our October 2018 Pub of the Month winner is one that will be very familiar to those who have followed this award over the last few years. The Harlequin on Nursery Street has now been voted Pub of the Month six times since 2007, with the most recent before this coming in May 2016. Run by landlady Liz Aspden and Exit 33 Brewing owner Pete Roberts, the Harlequin is a free house which acts as the tap pub for the brewery. The bar features up to 10 well-kept real ales with the regular beers (Blonde and Northern Best) provided by Exit 33. All the latest seasonal and one-off Exit 33 brews feature too, as well as quality rotating guest ales, generally from Yorkshire and the North East. There is also a range of craft keg and bottled beers including an international selection, mainly German and Belgian. A regular winner of our Cider Pub of the Year award, the Harlequin is considered one of the best pubs in Sheffield for apple fans. Landlady Liz’s passion for cider is clear for all to see with as many as 14 different boxed ciders available, plus more in bottle and on keg. Keep an eye out (it’s hard to miss!) for the cider board with the current choice including descriptions and tasting notes. A popular quiz (affectionately known as the Harlequiz, of course) is hosted on Wednesdays, while live music features on Friday and Saturdays with rock bands normally dominating the Saturday slot. The second Thursday of each month is jazz and swing night and all music nights are free to attend. The Harlequin is a short walk from the City Centre or Kelham Island, or there is a bus stop right outside the pub served by routes 3, 7 and 8. We will be presenting the award on Tuesday 9 October, arriving from around 8pm for a presentation at 9pm.

If it’s Abbeydale beer you’re after then the brewery’s second tap pub, the Devonshire Cat, is probably a good place to start. This city centre venue, first opened in 2001 and bought by the brewery back in 2013 following the retirement of the previous landlord, had been a long-term fixture in CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide and has continued to be included every year since the change of ownership. Sheffield & District branch members clearly agree on its merits, having voted the Devonshire Cat our Pub of the Month for September 2018. The pub underwent a complete renovation a couple of years ago and the new-look pub features a central horseshoe-shaped bar with three distinct seating areas surrounding it. On the bar there are 12 handpumps, half of which serve Abbeydale’s own range of core and seasonal brews, while the other half feature interesting guest casks from local and national breweries. For those of a craftier persuasion, there is also an excellent range of keg beers from microbreweries near and far, as well as a selection of more than 100 bottles and cans. Tap takeovers are a regular occurrence at the Devonshire Cat, and recent breweries featured have included Scotland’s Fyne Ales, Leeds’ Ridgeside and London’s Brick Brewery. Of course, no article about the “Dev Cat” would be complete without mention of the excellent food menu on offer which is well worth a try, and they are happy to recommend beers to match the food. For music fans, the Honey Bee Blues Club takes place on the last Friday of every month and features the best of contemporary local blues music. Come and join us at the Devonshire Cat (49 Wellington Street, S1 4HG) for the Pub of the Month presentation on Tuesday 11 September, arriving from 8pm for a presentation at 9pm. Hope to see you there!

Our Pub of the Month award for August 2018, voted for as always by Sheffield & District CAMRA members, goes to the Beer Engine on Cemetery Road. The pub may only have opened in March 2015 but this is the second time it has been voted our branch’s Pub of the Month, having previously won the honour in August 2016. The man who created the Beer Engine in its current guise (it was formerly a music bar called Delaney’s, amongst other things) is Tom Harrington, who previously worked at Thornbridge and the Hillsborough Hotel. This was his first pub venture, although he is now also involved with the Old Workshop on Hicks Street too. The Beer Engine is in essence a traditional pub with a focus on serving high-quality real ales in a relaxing environment, but there is a modern twist in the form of ever-changing craft keg beers and an interesting range of spirits. The pub is furnished and decorated simply but is laid out to appeal to all – a main open area around the bar and a couple of smaller, cosier rooms. There’s a nice beer garden out the back which has been extremely popular during the recent hot weather. The bar features six handpumps, one of which dispenses the ever-available Neepsend Blonde. The remaining five feature a changing range of ales from breweries such as Exit 33, Bad Seed and North Riding, and sometimes a real cider. The staff are friendly and knowledgable and are happy to offer tasters and advice. No article about the Beer Engine would be complete without a mention of the pub’s food offerings. Monday to Saturday is pub tapas, with a selection of around 8 dishes on a menu which changes weekly. On a Sunday, the Beer Engine offers home-cooked roast dinners with a choice of meat of the week, vegetarian and vegan options. We will be presenting the award certificate at the Beer Engine on Tuesday 14 August. Join us from 8pm onwards for a presentation at 9pm. For those travelling by public transport, the 3/3a, 4/4a, 20, 43, 44, 75, 76, 86, 97, 98 and 218 all stop nearby. We hope to see you there!