Pubs and Bars / Pub of the Week
Pub of the Week: The Beaufort Arms
“Turn around to face me please,” a new visitor to the Beaufort Arms was told as he sheepishly agreed to have a poem recited for him by a slurring local. Swivelling on his seat at the bar to face the amateur poet, he listened for the next few minutes, the sound of rhyming couplets mixing with the smell of cider on the grey haired man’s breath.
The Beaufort Arms is within an area of Bristol that may have more pubs per square metre than any other.
Even with the closure of the Red Lion on Worrall Road, in this small corner of Clifton there is still the Port of Call, from whose beer garden the King’s Arms is almost within touching distance, the Coach and Horses is only a few yards away, the Jersey Lily is just the other side of Blackboy Hill, and there is also the newly opened Kinkajou cocktail bar.
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Each has their own eccentricities, with the Beaufort a haven for cider drinkers thanks to three different Thatchers on tap. “And one for yourself,” one man dressed in pink trousers tells the landlady as he orders his pint of Dry.
The two beer options on draft on a recent Thursday evening were St Austell’s Tribute and Exmoor Gold, but it really is worth sticking to the cider options here.
Behind the bar, four cheese and tomato rolls wrapped in clingfilm were near a collection of products that could have come straight from the pages of Viz: Dunking Dickies biscuits, Penis Pasta and Willy’s Cider.
In one corner of the pub, a piano is ready to be played; while in another is a jukebox that looks like it could belong in a museum. Wimbledon was playing on one television but nobody was paying any attention.
“Time to go home,” says a regular to nobody in particular soon after 7pm, before he sees a new face sitting at the bar writing in his notebook and asks if he wants to hear a poem he had written.
The Beaufort Arms, 23 High Street, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 2YF
0117 973 5906
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