The Elms, Burton on Trent

The double sided wooden floor bar of the Elms is found to the left of the entrance where bench seating runs along the front window in the small front section and a beer shelf lined with stools is found in the small rear section. Premium keg was available alongside Carling and the four hand pumps were drawing a decent drop of Bass alongside Adnams’ Lighthouse, GK Abbot Ale and Ossett’s Voodoo. To the right of the entrance is a room with banquette seating and a large open plan flagstone floored seating area is found at the rear where a central hooded fireplace sits atop a brick plinth. Up the left under a long skylight is some carpeted seating as well as a dartboard in the left rear corner. Out the back door are some steps up to a beer garden that I only saw through the window. The Bass was good and the service was very friendly so I enjoyed my visit, but it’s on the other side of the River Trent from town meaning it’s a bit of a trek from some other good pubs.

With time ticking on, I just had enough time for one more Burton pub before heading to the football ground. The Elms is situated slightly uphill and on the other side of the river Trent from town. It is in fact in the Stapenhill area. This is a nice, traditional pub that has been modernised a litte without spoiling it. There are 2 rooms at the front of the pub, with another to the rear of the bar. Beyond that, there is a much larger modern lounge. Bass & Landlord are regular beers here. Citra was the guest. A decent pub, but not quite on a par with those in the centre.

Stuck out on the ‘wrong’ side of the River Trent from the town centre, this is a lovely multi room pub that merits the trek over the water to check out. You enter through a front door with nice etched glass panes bearing the pub name, emerging into a quarry stone floored corridor with smartly painted walls decorated with nice old local photos and some high quality breweriana. There are seating areas either side of this corridor on entry, both of which are bare boarded and boast some nice full-height wall panels. The servery can be found in the left-hand room, where hard bench seating fills the front window bay and a couple of tables and chairs are squeezed into the corners and a lit fireplace on the end wall ensures a cosy feel. The right-hand room has comfortable upholstered banquettes around its perimeter with plenty of low stools in support. There’s also a fireplace on the end wall here too, but it wasn’t lit, which was handy as I was pretty warm having marched out here from the train station. A third, smaller room can be found further along the corridor, facing the back of the servery which means you can’t see which beers are on from here – high stool seating is the order of the day in this space, which was notably unoccupied on my visit. Further back, the pub opens out substantially, as the corridor empties into a restaurant style space with loads of tables and chairs and nice contemporary décor which doesn’t clash with the pub’s overall traditional feel. Music played quietly in the background throughout my stay, and I didn’t notice any TV screens or other such intrusions. There were four handpulls in operation when I arrived, dispensing Taylors landlord, Draught Bass, Ossett Yorkshire Blonde and Oakham Citra. A very friendly barmaid served up a pint of the latter, which was in excellent shape and just what I needed after the long traipse out here. This is a very pleasant pub with several nice seating areas, a well-kept selection of ales and very friendly service, which make it well worth crossing the river for. It seems like the sort of place that could work for traditionalists as well as those who prefer a more contemporary setting and I’d happily return if time permitted me to reach such an outlier.

Initially missed to visit this one on the official Pubs Galore Burton crawl but staying in town had the opportunity for a lunch time visit the following day after a very pleasant walk along the banks of the River Trent from Branston. ( By the way todays quiz question is, with regards to the Premier Inn Burton On Trent Central, it’s central to what exactly ?). On a more positive note we found the Elms to be a proper pub with proper beer and proper cold kitchen pub food. Firstly it’s a cracking pub building. The original Victorian section is still in place with three separate small rooms arranged around the central serving area accessed by a corridor that retains a serving hatch. Still a very traditional feel to these rooms but the small bow-windowed panelled room to the right-hand side of the central entrance is the pick. Then there is a more modern mainly flagstone extension section to the back of the original building which doubles, if not trebles the inside space and, although lacking the character of the front section, is comfortable enough and contains a large flat screen tele for those wishing to view the sport. And then beyond this is a very nice outside enclosed raised walled courtyard garden which was catching the mid day sun for our visit and has the benefit of being far enough back that any traffic noise is negligible. Secondly a decent selection of ales were available. The front bar supports four hand pumps and for our visit these were badged with the beers described by Ray below, who I must have missed by minutes, namely Timothy Taylor Landlord, Totally Brewed Four Hop Men of the Apocalypse, Draught Bass and Oakham Citra. We went for the Oakham Citra which was on fine form. No hot food was available, but large cobs ( as I believe they call them in these parts ) were available from behind the bar and cheese board and pork pie platters were being advertised on a chalk board. We went for one each of these and they hit the spot completely. No better pub food has ever been devised than a substantial locally produced Pork Pie and English Mustard for soaking up a pint of English ale. With very friendly service levels from the team working the bar we enjoyed our visit here, and I would thoroughly recommend the slight uphill detour from the banks of the nearby River Trent to visit this one.

This fine pub certainly ticked all the boxes and in spite of the good sized rear lounge area, it is a drinks led pub only. However they do offer bar snacks rolls sandwiches etc. Four ales on handpump on our visit, Totally Brewed Four Men of the Apocalypse, Bass, TT Landlord and Oakham Citra. I went for the Totally Brewed, which was excellent and relaxed in the front panelled room on the right of the front entrance. This is the sort of pub you could quite happily stay for some time in.