Florence – Beer House Club
I’ve visited this craft beer pub twice over this long weekend, the first with Richard just for drinks, the second on my own for food.
The craft beer selection. Inevitably there’s a slight disappointment of seeing so many imported beers rather than locally made ones, but such is the state of the craft beer trade in Italy and there were a least a few local ones. The draught drinks list has a variety of different types of beers on it although the “great bottle selection” remained a mystery as I didn’t see any list of these. The prices were all reasonable, generally around €6 for a beer, which is in keeping with the rest of Florence.
There’s a printed beer list, which still doesn’t have the bottles listed in it.
Some of the options on draught.
The bar area, which was all clean and organised. It’s possible to order from the bar, but table service is also offered for those wanting food. There’s also an outside seating area which is covered and I can imagine that this is most acceptable during the hot summer months.
I had a large (although they call it medium as they only have two sizes, the other being small) London Stout on my first visit and a large Freeride on my second visit. The London Stout was from Young’s Brewery, it’s a beer that I know well, perfectly drinkable although not exceptional in its richness. The Freeride IPA was interesting to me as it’s from the Italian Birrificio Del Ducato brewery, fruity and quite sharp, it was quite a refreshing option.
The Greek burger which was neatly presented and was at the appropriate temperature. I wasn’t asked how I wanted my burger cooked, but it came out medium-well done, which was fine and I received everything that I expected. There was a slab of feta cheese which added some saltiness and richness, the burger was meaty with a pleasant taste, whilst the other salad elements added some texture. The chips were well salted and very moreish, indeed, I could have likely eaten many more of them.
The service was friendly throughout, there’s a relaxed feel to this bar and there was a generally younger crowd there on both my visits. I booked via The Fork, which worked well here and got me a 20% discount, so the meal came to around £10 for the drink and burger. All entirely lovely, efficient and on-trend, just what I like. For the perfect visit though, I’d like more to be made of their bottled beers.