Zerodegrees

Part of a chain of family-owned pubs, Zero Degrees in Blackheath brings a little of the microbrewery craze to this part of London. First impressions on walking through the door were of muddled confusion. As my plus-one said, “it’s the kind of place they’d call ‘fancy’ in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ and honestly, I couldn’t put it any better. If you took a Slug and Lettuce or Pitcher and Piano and plonked a microbrewery inside then this is what you’d get. It’s full of clean lines, has plenty of well thought out dining and standing room and wraps itself up in a chic industrial look. It may not be the place you would expect to find an in-house brewery but it works.

We take a table on the top floor balcony overlooking big metal brewing containers and watch people have their picture taken pretending to be brewers – any thoughts of the craft craze wearing off are put to bed with that.

The Zero Degrees beer itself is a reasonable standard and while the American style IPA was disappointing the wheat beer and mango ale will go down well in summer. We try the kilo of mussels and can’t fault the mariniere sauce, before sampling the seafood linguine. A healthy glug of chilli oil gave the dish a much-needed kick. Not really concentrating on any one thing, Zero Degrees offers mighty wood-oven pizzas, Italian classics and an incongruous sausage and mash – throwing everything in to appeal to all tastes.

Blackheath is a picturesque slice of London – it has a pond – and Zero Degrees is probably one of the few bars in the town that brews its own beer. The food offers solid accompaniment but the novelty of the beer and the lively ambiance are no doubt the reasons most people will visit.

Zerodegrees

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