So, What Comes Next?

It’s all about a sausage
bratwurst
bratvst/​
noun
a type of fine German pork sausage that is generally FRIED or GRILLED.
NOT MICROWAVED OR BOILED! That would be a brühwurst.
Served with French’s mustard? That would be an American mustard then?
Me? Picky? So I’ve been told. But one thing’s for sure — The Oktoberfest Steiner is second to none. After a few of those the bier goggles come down and gradually the anaemic wurst was yesterday’s joke. The currywurst devourer next to me had no complaints, the dribble down his shirt was testament to that, but then again he’s easy to please — particularly when drunk. But maybe he did have complaints? A couple of streiners down and it was hard to tell. But one thing’s for sure, the table of students next to us must’ve got a bit sick of our drunken dad sausage jokes…

We ventured here a little cautiously on a Friday night. Not because of the fame of the previous incarnation of this bar as being a bit rough, but because they’d posted on their Facebook page that there would be a DJ set, and really we were looking for a quite spot for a pint and some good chat. Curiosity got the better of us though, and we weren’t disappointed. The «DJ set» was a guy in the corner with his Mac Book playing inoffensive songs at an inoffensive volume — so for us that was pretty much perfect.
The bar is looking pretty cool now. It’s warmly lit and we found that even with our large-​ish group we had no trouble squeezing around tables upstairs on the balcony. That’s a nice spot — it’s cool to be able to look down and see what’s going on in the main bar area below.
We didn’t order food since we’d already eaten but they had an Octoberfest menu running (also, their bar snacks include chicken salt fries and rosemary salt fries). It looks like they will be doing slightly different things each month (next month, November, is «30 Days of Wine» which sounds very promising to me). That said, if I’d been hungry I’m sure I would have struggled to say no to the Rouladen. Our German friends pointed out a few spelling mistakes in the menu but admitted that they’d definitely want to come back and try the food if it was available for a bit longer.
They have a well stocked bar and prices that won’t break the bank. There’s plenty here to please everyone, from real ales, through wines and to a decent (and cheap) cocktail menu. Its not often that I go for a cocktail but at £4.95 I think I could be tempted.
It’s slight out of my way but I think I might make an effort to return during 30 Days of Wine to try the food and to go investigate the Winter Garden. This once slightly scary pub is now a very promising and welcoming bar.

I dunno if it makes sense to review a pop-​up bar, particularly since they’re clearly doing itison deals simply to pull in the punters. It’s a cool place though. A small church, now a pub with a famous mezzanine, famous only because Begbie chucked a pint off it in the Trainspotting movie. It needs a fair bit of tlc, but it could be a really nice bar once Lebowskis choose what to do with it. It was actually fairly busy, with an eclectic mix of punters, and is actually quite bright inside with it’s big windows.
So how was it? Well it was £7 (I think) for a two-​pint stein and a brattwurst. That’s how it was. The beer was West Oktoberfest so no complaints there, really nice, but the sausage, as commented on by my accompanying wurst expert, was straight out of your German-​owned supermarket. I had a currywurst, the curry sauce could have been a bit more exciting, but it probably came straight out of the same supermarket. It wasn’t bad. The extremely thin sauerkraut was okay too. The only annoying thing was the bap-​type thing it came in. It disintegrated into a soggy mess in my hand by the time I was getting near to the finish line.