Ales and Tails, Twickenham TW1 (London)
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
West London: Twickenham and Hampton Hill
Bar, specialist (Lost Society)
29 York Street, Twickenham TW1 3JX
w www.alesandtailsbar.co.uk f alesandtails tw alesandtails
Open 1700 (1200 Fri-Sun)-2300 (2400 Fri-Sat, 1700 Sun, closed Mon). Children welcome until early evening.
Cask beer 6 (changing mainly London guests), Other beer 8 keg, 40+ bottles (London, international), Also 11 wines (including English wine), cocktails, specialist spirits.
Food Quality British menu, Outdoor Small balcony on street, Wifi. Disabled toilet.
Meet the brewer, beer tastings, occasional live music and performance.
Twickenham strengthened its claim to beer connoisseur’s attention still further with the launch in August 2012 of this imaginative new venture from the people who brought you Citizen Smith and Powder Keg Diplomacy. Initially a pop-up bar, it later closed for a month and has since reopened as a permanent purveyor of craft beers, specialist spirits and cocktails, most sourced from the UK with a focus on London.
The prime central site was once an American-themed diner style joint called the Ranch, and the old seating with its padded booths and stools has been partially retained, though potted plants, vintage lampshades and candlesticks add a fin de siècle note shared with sister bar PKD. The menu is a long way from diner fare, boasting quality stuff made from British ingredients at gastropub prices – slow braised pig cheeks, smoked haddock and the like.
The cask beers are usually from London brewers, with Brodie’s, By the Horns, Sambrook’s and the local Twickenham brewery among the suppliers. The owners also contract a house beer under their own Lost brand, and there are occasional interlopers from the likes of Liverpool Organic. Beavertown, Kernel, Meantime and Redchurch might be on keg, alongside Hacker Pschorr and Ireland’s Porterhouse Porter, making a rare appearance outside its brewer’s own pubs.
London and London-linked breweries appear among the bottles too – Windsor & Eton’s Republika lager and a selection of Kernels are often stocked, and this might be one of the few places to sample Twickenham’s original cask Naked Ladies alongside the Belgian bottled version brewed by Alvinne. Bear Republic, Dupont, Summer Wine and Thornbridge are other names to reckon with.
Between this and the Sussex Arms up the road, Twickenham is on its way to becoming as much a byword for beer lovers as it is for rugby union devotees.
National Rail Twickenham Cycling LCN+ Kingston, Isleworth, Hanworth, Links to NCN4 Walking Thames Path, River Crane Walk
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