Pubs and Bars / A-Z Bristol pub crawl
A-Z Bristol Pub Crawl: The Blaise Inn, Henbury
A painting of Saint Blaise with a blinging gold halo behind him is framed on one side of the bar at the Blaise Inn.
If you don’t know, Saint Blaise was the Bishop of Sebaste in modern Turkey around 1,700 years ago. He was best known for healing the sick, with even animals coming to him to be cured.
A popular saint in medieval England, it is thought that a chapel to him once stood at the top of Blaise Hill where Blaise Castle is today (although it could have replaced another chapel to St Werburgh, but that’s a story for another time).
is needed now More than ever
Back to the Blaise Inn – just over the road from Blaise Castle Estate – and at the bar itself, a man just stepped in from the rain outside ordered a ten-year Laphroaig single malt.
“I don’t have a whisky glass so is a brandy glass okay?” asked the barman apologetically.
A permanent question is written on a small blackboard the other side of the bar to Saint Blaise: ‘Why not try a slice of home-made chocolate Guinness cake? – £3.50 per slice’
It’s a clue that in here, food is taken very seriously indeed. As if on cue, a bowl of chips the size of Jenga pieces is taken to a table of friends who quickly devour them.
(If you want to play the real Jenga, Monday nights are board game nights here; while there is also a pub quiz on the first Tuesday of every month.)
The co-owner of the Blaise Inn is Louise McCrimmon, previously executive chef at Harvey Nichols restaurant in Quakers Friars.
After being made redundant in 2021 due to Covid, she opened the pub with her husband, Ian, and neighbours Nicola and Peter Gilbert, with this historic former coaching house featuring for the first time in the Michelin Guide the following year.
Mains include roast duck breast (£23), fillet of seabass (£19) and seared onglet steak (£18), and Sunday roasts from £14. Desserts include steamed marmalade puddings with bay scented custard (£7) and rum baba, roast pineapple and chantilly cream (£8).
Tables in one half of the pub on a recent Thursday evening were laid for dinner. But it’s not all about the food here.
Cask beers and ciders included The Simple Things from Quantock Brewery, Silver King from Ossett Brewery and Stan’s from Thatchers, while there is also a good selection of low and no alcohol drinks including Bristol Beer Factory’s Clear Head.
“Where does Henbury end and Brentry begin?” asked a new visitor to the pub on their way out. Saint Blaise could probably answer that one.
The Blaise Inn is a stone’s throw from Blaise Castle Estate – photo: Martin Booth
The Blaise Inn, 260 Henbury Road, Henbury, Bristol, BS10 7QR
www.theblaiseinn.co.uk
Main photo: Martin Booth
Read next:
- Bristol pub earns national recognition from Michelin
- Memorial to enslaved people could be installed in church with memorial top slaver
- There is a secret underground footpath in north Bristol
Listen to the latest Bristol24/7 Behind the Headlines:
Our top newsletters emailed directly to you
