Pubs and Bars / Pubs
Pub of the week: The Urban Standard
It’s amazing what you discover when stripping back years of accumulated detritus from an old building.
A feature in the Urban Standard on the Gloucester Road are tiles with thistle motifs, revealed during renovation work to transform what used to be an amusement arcade into this new bar.
A look at other uses for number 35 from the fabulous website The Gloucester Road Story reveal that this building once upon a time was also a “toy and fancy warehouse” from 1890 and a grocer in the first few years of the twentieth century.
is needed now More than ever
Its latest incarnation also retains a black and white tiled floor, but other than that it’s very much industrial chic, from a design perspective somewhere between Brewdog on Baldwin Street and The Office in Totterdown.
There is also a slight pang of recognition from the former Urban Wood on Colston Street, whose owners upped sticks to open the Urban Standard with the kitchen headed up by the team from Moreish on Chandos Road.
The bar is formed from large strips of corrugated iron, lights hang down from red wires and a metal cage next to the bar holds the beer pumping mechanisms and other assorted equipment not usually on public display.
A My Dog Sighs original of one of his crushed cans is a large feature on a wall near the front door, while other framed street art pieces add a splash of colour.
There is a wide variety of spirits, and in the evenings cocktails could be the tipple of choice here.
Five hand pulls make a subtle appearance on one corner behind the bar. When I visited on Saturday these were Frontier, Chimay, Camden Ink, Stanford Red and Wisteria Wheat.
Bottles and cans include Arbor, Flying Dog and Sierra Nevada, and there’s also a small coffee machine.
The Urban Standard opens at 10am every day with a breakfast and brunch menu that includes a full English (£7.95), buttermilk pancakes (from £6) and porridge (£3.95).
Food at lunchtime and dinner is of the ‘dude’ variety, with sandwiches the likes of mac ‘n’ pork (£7.50), small plates of smoked pork belly (£4.50) and crispy fried squid (£4.50), mains of burgers (£8.50) and a half or whole rack of ribs (£8.50/£14.90), and plenty of steaks and other assorted meats which are chalked up on a board depending on what cuts the kitchen currently has.
It all adds up to a mighty fine new addition to Gloucester Road.
The Urban Standard, 35 Gloucester Road, Bishopston, Bristol, BS7 8AD
0117 942 4341
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