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I don't know about you, but for me drinking beer does not go with comfort. Draught bitter is something you drink standing up or, at best, sitting on a wobbly stool. Comfy sofas, on the other hand, are more conducive to tea in china cups or smart cocktails. No, beer and soft furnishings don't mix. Which makes Burtonwood Brewery plc - the owners of the Number Fifteen chain - look pretty shrewd, given that they'll be pushing vodka and tonics at £3 a pop over the bar where once they used to sell pints of lager at £2 a go.
Because Number Fifteen is stuffed with soft. In an overt effort to avoid looking like one of that dieing breed, the theme pub, they have raided the antique shops and furnished Number Fifteen with an eclectic haul of unmatched furniture. No two chandeliers are the same (and there are many). Cushions are plump to the point of obesity and are covered in textiles of improbable diversity. The effect looks well enough though it can be unnerving to find that everyone at your table is sitting on a chair of a different height and even more disconcerting to discover that the chair you believed you were sitting on is in fact a stool and has no back to prevent you from falling backwards, your head landing in a neighbour's lap.
The bar and the pharmacist's drawers and shelves from its previous incarnation as the Irish-themed Ryan's Bar have been retained. The awkward deep, narrow, shape of the premises too, of course. But the emphasis has shifted from scruffy beer barn to chilled lounge. Nearly everyone has dressed up, which is something that could never have been said of Ryan's, and there isn't a Guinness to be seen.
The drinks are pretty standard higher-echelon pub fare - Czech beer, cocktails, reasonable wine. Service is remarkable only in so far as the recent trend for table waiting has not been followed. The bar does, however, possess a 1 a.m. licence. This should enable it to establish itself as a venue in its own right rather than being a feeder pub to the nearby night clubs. Although at the time of writing it is too early to say what kind of crowd Number Fifteen will attract on a regular basis, we imagine that it will be a more mature group than most. Music is played - think Radio 2 - but conversation is feasible. In what looks like a bar intended to appeal to grown ups it is distressing to report that once again the usual idiotic local dress policy (no trainers, no jeans and no hats (thank you Pietro!)) is enforced here.
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