What used to be All Bar One on Corn Street has become Vault Room, a new independent franchise leased from giant bar and restaurant business Mitchells & Butlers.
Mitchells & Butlers own some 1,600 restaurants and pubs across the UK, including Ember Inns, Harvester and Toby Carvery.
Nearby Start The Bus is also surprisingly a Mitchells & Butlers-owned bar, as are the Hole in the Wall off Queen Square, the Botanist on Berkeley Square and the Flyer on the Gloucester Road.
Appearances can certainly be deceptive.
Much of the drinks selection in Vault Room is displayed in wooden crates behind the bar, which when I visited on Saturday afternoon was being propped up by a wedding party from the nearby register office.
Tall leather banquettes line the high-ceilinged room, with the original latticed decoration in place above the baby blue walls, hanging metal lamps and fans.
Corn Street will soon get one of Bristol’s most exciting openings for several years when the team behind Hyde & Co. and Milk Thistle open The Ox beneath the Commercial Rooms selling steak and cocktails a la Hawksmoor in London.
Vault Room, however, does not stray away from the vertical drinking establishment which much of Corn Street is known for.
It does, however, still have eight draught beers, including Sierra Nevada and Estrella, Aspall cider, and plenty of bottles of which Innis & Gun Oak Aged Beer stands out.
Vault Room, 47 Corn Street,Bristol, BS1 1HT. 0117 930 4762.
