swift one -variety bar

Photo from LindaKuster on flickr
Photo from Hollabb on flickr.
Interior shot from TGKW on flickr. No idea who that dude is.The Variety Bar is an oasis of art deco fronted/old man drinking/chinese restaurant goldflake decor/lp playing country music on fridays/yer pal used to tend bar there calm at the west end of Glasgow's Sauchiehall St. Daytime calm at least. (Sauchiehall St. is a mass of shops, pubs, dodgy pubs, lunch places, the Center For Contemporary Arts and nearby is the Glasgow School of Art.) Hell no, the Variety does not have a website... but the kitchen does not get above its station, and drinks are inexpensive pints and small ones. Description here captures it. Def' add to your list...

Bonus is the similarly deco Kings Cafe next door. Out of this world potato fritters. Photo below from Cumbo on flickr.

swift one -de hems

Photo via Twenty Questions on flickr.
De Hems is a large (basement, main, 2nd floor) Dutch pub in London. On Macclesfield St., just off a sidestreet in Chinatown, a dash over from Soho (off Shaftesbury Ave.), and though this is a busy area in general you might miss it if you don't intentionally go, i.e. not so touristy as you might think. Our Man In London had to point it out to me. Plus you can head to the cheap/rude Wong Kei's after for singapore noodles. A million reviews online but this is typical.

I have to admit I am not sure what a "dutch pub" is but the place is woody and open, 20 foot ceilings, staff are great and there is a massive beer selection (for me that means every variety of Leffe, not so much into hefeweizen.) Class in a glass.

swift one -thistle street bar

39 Thistle St., Edinburgh, Scotland


Off the beaten path a bit, and all the better for it... this Edinburgh pub has settled on the tsb (Thistle Street Bar) name now after a few changes of hands over the years. Cobbled side street, fireplace, £2 malts. Bingo.

image by musicmuse_ca via flickr.

image by john_william_foster via flickr.