The Pocket, N1
The Pocket
The Pocket is a fantastic local pub located just near Highbury and Islington station in Canonbury are just off Upper Street.
It is an old style boozer with great artwork on the walls, serving some amazing beers. They always have a really interesting range of beer on tap. For example, they always have a lager and of course a session, usually have an IPA, sometimes a DIPA. They'll also have a selection of cask ales, a mild, a bitter, a golden or a red, a no or low alcohol beers as well as some really weird stuff like a sour. They also have up to six different ciders as well. So a really good selection of still ciders which is pretty unusual, in my experience as a cider drinker. They are owned by Howling Hops the Brewery so they always have some of the howling hops beers on. But they also have a rotation of different beers like Orbit, Kernel, Hackney Church, Virtuous but they always have just a few kegs that are constantly changing so there's always new stuff coming on which is really exciting. They also do wine on tap and a few spirits like a gin and tonic.
They have a vinyl player in the corner playing music and they also have a piano. This is live music on some afternoons in the week, including a saxophonist sometimes, and on Sundays. There is some space to sit outside on the street but unfortunately no beer garden, which is the only downside. They do food - a selection of sausage rolls and pasties and Scotch eggs, and most importantly scampi fries. The vibe is great. All of the staff are really lovely. Sometimes on a Friday and Saturday night it will be busy but often during the week it's not super crowded and there's places to perch around or even at the bar to chat to the team.
It's very dog friendly. They always have dogs in there which is really nice. The owner actually has a dog and Saffy is always very welcome. Her favorite place to sit is underneath the little bench in the corner so that she can see everyone when they're coming and going and she loves to meet people and everyone loves to cuddle her. There's also a pretty well known dog Basil whose picture is behind the bar who I believe is a Chihuahua. Well, there's not much going on up there, but he is a real friendly little guy who likes to sit on a stool and see what's going on.
Just a really nice pub. Really really good beer. Really good vibes. Very dog friendly for Saffy
5/5 Still ciders
5/5 Dog benches
4/5 Sausage rolls - going to have to drop a point for the lack of garden with the nice sunny days at the moment
