{"id":396153,"date":"2025-09-04T02:54:22","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T02:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/396153\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T02:54:22","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T02:54:22","slug":"the-bristol-pub-with-cocktails-and-hidden-karaoke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/396153\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bristol pub with cocktails and hidden karaoke"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four friends behind the refurbished venue are hoping for it to be crowned Bristol’s Pub of the Year\"We'reWe’re on the search for Bristol’s pub of the year in 2025(Image: Getty)<\/p>\n

The good times are back at The Ship Inn in Bristol city centre<\/a>, nearly a year after it re-opened under the management of four mates<\/a>. Chris McGuire, Alex Roach, Tarik Graba and Stuart McGuire took on stewardship of the long-established Lower Park Row boozer after it closed down under previous management in March 2023.<\/p>\n

After an extensive refurbishment, The Ship Inn reopened in October 2024. Since then, the pub has received a series of good reviews online, and it has now been nominated for Bristol Live\u2019s Pub of the Year<\/a> award.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are four hospitality friends who wanted the pubs we loved to be more,\u201d Chris said. \u201cMore in offering, look, feel and style.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Ship Inn reopened under new management in October 2024(Image: PAUL GILLIS \/ Reach PLC)<\/p>\n

To that end, the four friends have added some quirky features to The Ship Inn. They installed a cocktail station, and cocktails sales now outstrip beer sales – possibly due to the venue\u2019s prime studentland location, with many University of Bristol<\/a> buildings a stone\u2019s throw away.<\/p>\n

\u2018Cactus Charlie\u2019, the pub\u2019s tequila happy hour cocktail, is its best selling drink, followed by Guinness and Red Stripe.<\/p>\n

Cast your Pub of the Year vote HERE<\/a><\/p>\n

The Ship team are building a strong head of steam in the Bristol hospitality game, with popular Clifton<\/a> venues Vittoria and Barrelhouse also under their stewardship.<\/p>\n

Food is not available at The Ship, but Detroit-style pizza can be ordered in from Barrelhouse.<\/p>\n

The Ship Inn also has a hidden downstairs area, featuring a secret beer garden and a karaoke bar.<\/p>\n

Chris said the karaoke bar was generally a hit, but he acknowledged it occasionally caused a headache for staff.<\/p>\n

He said \u201chaving to stop a couple who wanted to do their fourth rendition of \u2018spice girls- 2 become 1\u2019 on the jukebox and having to explain why it wasn\u2019t a good idea,\u201d was one moment that stood out, for better or for worse.<\/p>\n

The pub features a rotating list of more orthodox pub entertainment, such as live music, open mic nights and a quiz.<\/p>\n

Shuffleboard and darts are also available for those who like to spice up their drinking with a bit of competitive action.<\/p>\n

Chris said being awarded the Pub of the Year title would mean “everything” to the team at The Ship, so early in its life as a new pub.<\/p>\n

“We have been here nearly 12 months and this would really put us on the map,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four friends behind the refurbished venue are hoping for it to be crowned Bristol’s Pub of the YearWe’re…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,136853,748,18959,393,786,4884,9028,16,15,25179],"class_list":{"0":"post-396153","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-bristol-students","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-clifton","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-food-and-drink","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-pubs-and-bars-in-bristol","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-university-of-bristol"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115143774350001235","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}