Leicester
Leicestershire, England
Review last updated Feb 2004.

I lived in Leicester for four years, leaving in April 2003. I haven't been back much since, but my old cronies keep me informed.

The Criterion and the Swan and Rushes (Mainly Beer Ltd)

Around 2000, a chap named Grant Cook took over the Swan and Rushes. He turned it from a dive into beer heaven. When I left Leicester he had seven handpumps and over a hundred bottled beers there. I cannot express enough what a time I had there. It was the place that educated me about world beers (before that I had mainly stuck to the British ales).

In late 2002 Grant opened a second pub in Leicester, the Criterion, branding his nascent pub chain Mainly Beer. The Crit followed the style of the Swan and Rushes, but it had a much larger kitchen. Grant installed a pizza oven which was initially manned by former pizza chef and Swan and Rushes bar manager Sammy Saunders. The place now does a roaring trade in posh foreign beer and pizzas (being cunningly located near De Montfort University and several legal practises) as well as serving many storming real ales.

Mainly Beer website.