Luis Bar + Fernandes Brewery Pub

The Bar

My first impression of the Luis Bar + Fernandes Brewery public house was OK, a bit gloomy, probably my last visit. Over the course of four pints, I changed my mind. Sometimes first impressions are wrong. In this case, they were wrong. It’s a great place for a session.

The bar is on the second and third floors of the building, and the Fernandes brewery is in the cellar. Both are located in the Maltings for the Fernadez Old Bridge Brewery. A brewery set up by Jose Luis Fernandes (the bar is named after him) in the nineteenth century, which became part of the John Smith’s Tadcaster Brewery in the 1920s. A brewery history can be found here. The current version of the brewery was set up in 1997 and acquired by Osset in 2007. Not good. In 2021, the brewery and bar were extensively refurbished and reopened independently of Osset. Is Good.

The refurbishment was very well done, as you can see from the photo of the bar above.

All of the real ales are brewed by Fernandes, down in the cellar. When I was there, there were eight of them on. I had four pints of Half Nelson, 3.8%, at £4.60 a pint. It was very nice, which is why I stuck with it.

They don’t do food, but while I was there the barman kept coming round with plates of beef-dripping sarnies. At first I said no. But then decided I might as well try one; if I didn’t like it I could chuck it. I actually enjoyed it. I had three or four of them. It’s a shame the bread was cotton wool bread.

On the first floor of the pub, there are some tables, lots of standing room, and the bar. I sat at one of the tables, on a settle; people-watching and reading my book First Overland, London to Singapore by Land Rover by Time Slessor. Due to a lack of windows, it was a bit dark. At the back of the bar was a staircase leading to the second floor. Because of a sign on the wall pointing to the toilets, I thought this was all there was to the pub.

Until I went upstairs for a pee; upstairs in the gallery, there’s lots of seating, including a couple of armchairs. There are some old pub signs hanging from the ceiling. On the walls, there is lots of pub memorabilia. You need to come downstairs to buy your drinks.

At one point, the sun started shining through a window high up on the wall, above the staircase. This created some interesting lighting effects.