A week in pubs: w/c 20 June 2011

Pub visits this week 4
Location Sheffield

An odd week in pubs, this one. Other than Wednesday lunchtime at the Interval cafe bar, it’s all compressed into one day. I’ve been to Manchester but I didn’t get to the pub. I’ve discovered a new place in Sheffield. It’s a bit different to the usual sorts of places I go.

Friday lunchtime at the University Arms is nice enough. But on Friday night I end up at a place called Bar 27, just off London Road. What’s Bar 27 like? It’s the sort of place you end up at on a Friday night if you have a band practice straight after work and then you go to the Rutland Arms with your bandmates and your drummer says, I’ve got to go in a bit, I’m off to see my mate in his hip-hop band, don’t come with me, you won’t like the place, and you ask him what it’s called and you’ve never heard of it and you decide to go anyway just for the craic.

What’s Bar 27 like? It’s like a place that sells incredibly cheap beer. Exactly like a place that sells incredibly cheap beer, in fact.

What’s Bar 27 like? It’s like a disco in an igloo. It’s like the deleted scenes from Barbarella set in a Scouts’ hut. It’s like you’re the little model people on a wedding cake. It’s like someone who turns up at a party a bit overdressed and doesn’t feel awkward. It’s white and white and white all over. It’s like a drug you’ve never heard of, which turns out to be a hoax. It’s like a wayward cousin at a christening. It’s like the TV screens above the bar are showing Look North while the hip-hop band plays.

What’s Bar 27 like? It’s like you had to look quite hard on the internet afterwards to find out the name Bar 27, because you’ve no memory of seeing or hearing it anywhere while you were actually there.

What’s Bar 27 like? It’s like a venture you hope succeeds, because you look around and think, bloody hell, someone’s spent at least a quarter of a million quid doing up this place.

I’m not saying any of this is a good or a bad thing. I’m just saying it.