We'd heard that Apotheca had started doing decent beer and "All Hail the Real Ale" read the sign that poked out of the snow-covered Thomas Street pavement. The sight of one forlorn Flowers IPA handpump was frankly disappointing but we gave it a try and it wasn't that bad, apart from having the taste and temperature of the tinned Flowers of my youth. The young barman was pleasantly enthusiastic, even offering us a taster of, ahem, Stella Artois Black, along with InBev's marketing leaflet. Remarkably, the Stella Black is a real improvement on the reassuringly-expensive UK-mixed slurry, and is apparently brewed in Belgium. Good tunes, an attached pizza place (Dough), a European-bar-vibe, and seemingly more relaxed than some of its Thomas Street peers, Apotheca isn't bad at all.
Website: www.apothecabar.co.uk.
