Pubs and Bars / Pub of the Week
Pub of the week: The Cadbury
On a recent cool spring evening, the Cadbury is warmly lit with candles in wax-dripped bottles on every table and strings of fairy lights illuminating the large smoking area outside.
A sign – along with the smell of paint – warns punters as they come in that the redecoration efforts that recently saw the pub close for several days are still ongoing. It might be looking “more shabby than chic”, but nonetheless it’s a friendly place to be on a Wednesday night.
If you had never visited before, you’d find nothing missing from the wooden bar, with a regularly changing selection of beers that in recent weeks have included local selections from Moor, Good Chemistry and Bristol Beer Factory.
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Chalkboards on the exposed brick walls offering tempting Sunday roasts point to a kitchen that has also had a spruce up during the changes, with battered hake and chips (£10) and rump steak (£14) on tonight’s posh pub-grub menu.
The Cadbury remains at the heart of the Montpelier community
A Welsh dresser packed with neat knives and forks in glass tankards occupies the space where DJs once spun tunes wildly on weekday nights.
Soul playing softly over the stereo and couples putting the Scrabble board to one side to eat their dinner reflect a major change to more than just the choice of music here.
New spotlights and a lick of paint make the place brighter, but also more sterile. Perhaps this will change, however, as the final renovations are completed and some of the artwork that gave the old place such character returns to the walls.
Tucked half-way up one of the steep narrow Victorian streets that criss-cross Montpelier, the Cadbury is nestled firmly within the community it serves, and as that community continues to change it’s almost inevitable that the pub would become better dressed.
With nearby locals closing completely, however, let’s be thankful that it remains a proud free house.
The Cadbury, 68 Richmond Road, Montpelier, Bristol, BS6 5EW
0117 924 7874
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