Friday 27 March 2009

Salt


Mermaid Quay, Cardiff Bay [map]



You may not be able to read it in this photo but the subtitle of Salt (as if a bar needs a subtitle) is, "The essential ingredient."

It's the sort of meaningless, twee nonsense that makes you want to scoop your own eyes out with a rusty tin. Still, we continued inside, eyeballs intact. We are, after all, professionals.


Good to see the 45 prominently positioned. Not quite sure whether that's a selection of savoury nuts or breakfast cereals behind the bar. Frankly, we don't want to find out.


The view of the ground floor from bar right. Not very happy about the seating arrangements. Choose from a tiny table for two or that lengthy sofa by the stairs, on which you're forced to sit bolt upright.

And all that wasted space. The whole thing's a beige-tinged shambles.


In amongst the banister, there's a second, smaller bar upstairs, along with further uncomfortable seating.

We're just not sure what Salt is for. Given the glut of bars around here, one thing it's not is the essential ingredient - whatever the signage may boast.

2 comments:

Carl Morris said...

No offence but I'm not sure what Brains 45 is for? It's a continental-style lager made and branded with Brains? That makes no sense to me. Admittedly, it's not as far out as Jack Daniel's beer (which JD briefly tried once, when they got bored of whisky I guess). But if you're going to do a continental-style lager, why write Brains on it? It just makes me think of proper ale. Don't get me wrong, 45 tastes pretty good. But it's a marketing blunder...

Great blog!

Pint of 45 said...

It's a fair point about 45. And in some places, it comes in these tall, oddly curved glasses - last time I had it in The Cottage, a bloke at the bar accused me of ordering a drink in a vase.

But it's pleasing to see a decent tasting lager that's brewed in Wales, so that's good enough for us.

Anyway, thanks for reading. More updates next week. Next stop: Canton.