The medieval King Street in the heart of Bristol’s ‘Old City’ area has been a place where people go to eat, drink and be merry for centuries. At one end is the famous Llandoger Trow, which inspired Robert Louis Stevenson to create the Admiral Benbow Inn in Treasure Island, and where Daniel Defoe supposedly met Alexander Selkirk, whose real-life story inspired Robinson Crusoe.
The street is lined with many more historic and not-so-historic pubs. At the other end is a pub that might be diminutive in name, but punches well above its weight in reputation and popularity.
Small Bar occupies two different buildings at the western end of King Street and, since it was converted from a bar and cafe called Sublime in 2013, it has very much put itself on the map for all those heading to King Street.
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King Street comes into its own when the nights stay dry and not freezing cold, and all pubs along it share the buzz of being filled with people. There is a huge variety of places to go, from the club-meets-games room vibe of Kongs to the Old Duke’s pedigree as the home of West Country Jazz and live music. Small Bar has carved a niche for itself as a place to go for good food and a big range of local beers.
There are 31 taps in total, and while many will roll their eyes, the standard 2/3rds of a pint glasses it comes in works for the ales and ciders on sale - you quickly get used to it, and it allows you to sample more of the range on offer.
The pub has four distinct areas. The outside benches are often loud and crammed, the bar area is usually busy with people waiting to be served - but unlike many pubs, there are more people behind the Small Bar’s small bar than you fear there might be, so no one has to wait too long to get served.
In the other building through the knocked-through wall, is a downstairs area with long tables packed in, while upstairs - there’s two staircases to make accessing this level easier in a crowded pub - it’s more cosy, but still often just as full.
Small Bar says it pours ‘the world’s best beers’. “We try to ensure that we have a real focus on the best breweries from the South West first and foremost - it’s important to us that we sit as a showcase for the best and freshest beer from our locality,” a spokesperson said.
“We also regularly pour beer from the world's greatest breweries and make it our mission to ensure that our taps are filled with world class beer from near and far.”
Small Bar also has a reputation for its food too. As well as a great range of school lunchbox classic crisps, in 2018 Small Bar handed over the keys to its kitchen to Wing’s Diner.
They produce amazing Asian fried chicken, with veggie and vegan options. Many an evening drinker has gone to Small Bar with the intention of heading somewhere else to grab something to eat, seen what the next table are eating, and decided to stay put.
Beware though, the kitchens close at 9.30pm - something which often catches out the indecisive. Small Bar is open from 4pm for the first half of the week, then from noon between Thursday and Sunday.
It closes late too - it’s in King Street, after all - with time called at 12.30am in the week, 1am on Fridays and Saturday nights and midnight on Sunday.
