Yes, I know, it’s not a “pub” – I’m using that as a catch-all for anywhere that serves draught beer without requiring a food order – but until today I didn’t know Butch Annie’s was anything more than a burger place with some decent canned beers. The last time I came, over a year ago admittedly, they had Fourpure cans or Cerveses La Gardènia bottles to accompany the burgers, and good veggie burgers they are too. So it was a double-take surprise to see eight taps when we popped in for some lunch today – four from Fourpure and four from Redwell is more than enough choice to go with a burger, and they do welcome drinkers, so it’s a bar, or for my purposes, a pub.
It’s an independent subterranean bar near the Market Place, in what used to be Carrington’s Cafe on Market Street. We’ve always found the service and atmosphere friendly, and after suffering a few songs from U2 were rewarded with Hendrix’s Foxy Lady. The walls are graffitied, many of the tables form booths with padded bench seats, and there are stools at the bar – there has to be, it gets busy enough that you have to wait with a drink for a table to come free. But had we not, we wouldn’t have spotted the beer list and enjoyed a couple of pints of Fourpure Session IPA. For me, the burgers are better than Byron’s and I’ll take draught beer over cans any day. So, unexpectedly, at lunchtime today another Cambridge “pub” was added to the list and promptly ticked.
Pints and Pubs 
Well that is all news to me – another ‘craft’ bar in the town centre, what are the prices like and how clear is their price list – I hate the way some of these places mix and match pints / two thirds / halves so you never really know exactly what is being advertised….
I’ve added a photo of the beer list – mostly around £6 pint, although no halves, only 2/3 or pint, but much clearer pricing than a particular nearby bar
Interesting on the no-halves. It is a legal requirement to be able to serve beer in halves.
I thought the BBPA guidance (“Draught beer is required by law to be served in measures of one-third pint, ½ pint and multiples of ½ pint. ½ pint (284ml) and pint (568ml) are in practice the only measures normally used”) suggested that “in practice” one-third wasn’t enforced, so one might expect a similar blind-eye to lack of half pint?
It is simply a legal requirement to be able to serve beer by the half pint. (And the guidelines for responsible service of alcohol are that the smallest measure should be available but this does not seem to mean the third pint is required in practice.)
I only know this because if I opened a bar I wanted to serve only thirds and 2-thirds… but investigation found that the law would require halves as well (a half-line on a 2/3 glass then ticks the box).
See page 9 of “Guidance on Mandatory Licensing Conditions”: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/350507/2014-08-29_MC_Guidance_v1_0.pdf
After some hunting, here is the relevant legislation – section 5 on page 3 of The Licensing Act 2003 (Mandatory Licensing Conditions) Order 2010 : http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2010/860/pdfs/uksi_20100860_en.pdf
The premises does not need to merely have the ability to serve half pints, it must advertise the fact as well.
Cool – that looks nice and clear, as long as there are plenty of copies of the menu that are easy to view. I have no problems with any ones price structure as long as it is clear…..
Could you realistically just go in there and have a few pints though?
I asked them that, and they said “absolutely”. I intend to return for drinks-only when they’re busy to test that!
Well there you go, just shows what a valuable series this is. Will definitely investigate that. Agree on “keg over cans”, anyone (yes you, GK) can stick a bottle of Punk in the fridge and claim craft credentials; a row of fonts shows commitment. Very decent range too.