A £2 pint seems unheard of outside a student’s union bar and in the South of England. One community pub in Clifton wants people to know about its incredible drinks deals and free pool on Sundays.
The Den and Terrace has become popular with students since it opened, situated just a few steps away from Bristol University’s Victoria Rooms. The pub - open 12pm until 12am - wants punters to know its deals are on offer to the whole community, not just students, and describes itself as one of Bristol’s best-kept secrets.
“It’s not that we want it to be a very well-kept secret,” the pub’s General Manager Joss Bell told BristolLive. “It’s just the situation after Covid that has kept it that way - more through chance than anything else.”
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Studies have suggested more people are included to drink at home than go out for a pint these days, as lockdowns appeared to be linked to a shift in at-home drinking. The cost of living crisis isn’t helping either, with the price rise of pints making drinking out unaffordable for some.
Joss said: “It is worrying that the trends are showing that people are less included to come out and socialise with people. The economic climate and with bills increasing year on year is making it very, very difficult. What we are trying to do is work with our local community and offer them the best experience and the best prices in the area so they can still enjoy and have a life.”
Joss, originally from Essex, had never worked in a pub before the Den and Terrace. The 51-year-old was previously living in South Africa and running her own business with her family and moved back to her husband’s hometown of Bristol in July 2019 after their work visa ended.
The Den and Terrace is a basement pub, located within a Royal British Legion-owned building, and was previously run by a couple under the name Bundy’s. The low prices previously attracted an older clientele with students passing through during the evenings, Joss explained.
Its new owners Nicholas Luget and Nico Panigada, who purchased the pub at the start of the pandemic, couldn’t find anywhere in the Clifton area that felt like their idea of a local. They decided it was time to breathe life back into the pub once again and create a space for the whole community to enjoy, opening under the new name in August 2020.
It’s now known for its happy hour deals seven days a week, with £2 deals on pints and house doubles that then moves into ‘beat the clock’ between 3pm and 5pm, where the price of your drink is whatever the time is (i.e. £2.15 if you purchase at 2.15pm). They also serve £5 cocktails every day between 5pm and 8pm.
Outside of happy hour, pints of the house export on draught are priced at £3.95 and go up to £5.20 for a Guinness. House doubles are £5.45 plus an additional mixer. Customers are also invited to play the pub’s house marble game, where if you pick a black marble among nine others, you can bag yourself a free house mixer.
Joss said: “It’s just a bit of fun. People who come regularly know there’s an opportunity to win a free drink.”
The team, which now consists of around 20 people, used the lockdown period to install a small kitchen to allow them to serve food when the Government imposed a rule that alcohol must be served with a ‘substantial meal’ towards the end of 2020. They now have a pizza oven and serve a variety of food including pizza, chicken goujons, fish and chips and other vegetarian and vegan options.
“What we noticed is that a lot of people would come to drink and then go on to other restaurants and come back to us, or not. Now we offer food, we’ve got a really good deal on the 12pm-8pm pizza and a pint deal, £5 with a soft drink and £8 with alcohol.”
With Fresher’s Week cancelled last year because of the pandemic, there were no students to pass the word on about the Den and Terrace’s drinks offers. Now, the profile of the pub is being raised since working more closely with the student unions.
“I work heavily with the Bristol University Student’s Union,” Joss continued. “There are a vast number of societies we deal with on an ongoing basis. This year we exhibited at the Fresher’s Fair on the Downs and we’re based around the corner from the students union.”
Last year, the pub was working with up to 40 student societies to run nights from Monday to Thursday each week and some Sundays when the weekly quiz is hosted by a Bristol University society. Wednesday nights are the busiest with the sports societies.
“We’re prominently a student bar in the term time, but outside of that - we have to look for other avenues for our revenue stream. What we’re trying to do with our local community, that during those times and during the day, we’re trying to hit the student element and the local community with the deals we are offering.”
Joss admits that it is a student-orientated pub but is becoming more popular with residents from the area as word starts to get out. The Den and Terrace’s drinks deals run seven days a week, which makes drinking on a budget more accessible to the rest of the community.
The basement pub opens out onto a games room equipped with four darts boards, a pool table, jukebox and a photo booth. The separate bar area offers lots of board games to keep drinkers entertained and the ‘chit chat’ room’ - as the function room is affectionately known - has a karaoke machine with more than 40,000 songs.
It’s also a great place to kick back, relax and watch the football or the Grand Prix, with three screens stationed around the pub.
Find The Den and Terrace on 31 St Paul's Rd, Clifton, Bristol BS8 1LX . Open everyday from 12pm to 12am
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