We love a good dive bar. Maybe it’s that growing up the best pubs – filled with the best people, which is what it’s all about – were a bit rough around the edges, but we’re always drawn to dark and raw. East Street Tap is a good example of the nod to the classic New York dive bar, but The Revelator is something a little bit different.
Taking the Deep South as its influence, this new pub on Western Road (where The Duke Of Norfolk used to be) is all unvarnished wood rather than the concrete and bricks of those east coast dive bars. It makes for a nice change, and there’s something really authentic to the way that The Revelator have done it. You can imagine the place filled with truckers, or with Marty dragging Rust out to do some true detecting. There are nods to the religious nature of the American south, with neon crosses and biblical murals. Sin is your drinking companion though, with a great range of bourbons, American craft beer and cocktails coming once the dust has settled.
Food includes lots of meat, BBQ sauce and crayfish, plus some of the most interesting burgers we’ve seen for a while. The Chuck Satan is as devilish as it sounds – a beef chuck patty topped with maple bacon, Jack Daniels BBQ sauce, St Giles cheese, red onion and muscovado relish. We don’t know if it comes with a priest reading you last rites.
DJs will play from a pulpit, which is a nice touch, and the slow moving ceiling fans will go around and around like the records on the decks. Meg, the manager, has come from time at The White Rabbit, so expect the same sort of welcome you get at that Kensington Garden hang out.
All in all, it sounds like just the sort of place that Western Road needs. God willing, we’ll see you at the bar.