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The Bear & Billet reopened after an extensive refurbishment on 6 April 2005. The following account of the pub's opening night was posted on our Forum by Boss. The previous review is included below it, pending a re-write.
I was lucky enough to get a special sneak preview this evening, and I just wanted to say that it's brilliant. Basically, the refurbished B&B is absolutely faultless (although I'm sure someone will contradict me over the next few days). It's everything it used to be (before Bensons rather killed it off), and far more. I'd say it was a Harker's for the South of the city, but that would be doing it an injustice. It's been very much restored to it's former glory, not only opening up the main bar, but also opening a further two floors. All traces of the previous, and somewhat inappropriate, refit have been removed, and the pub once again oozes warmth and character. The food menu looks good value and no nonsense, but the pub's main attraction has to be it's incredible range of impecably kept beers. It's an Okell's World Beer Pub, as are two in Liverpool, and another in Leeds. As a result, it offers a large range of steam brewed bitters, from the Isle of Man, or lagers from all over the world. The Lindeboom and Erdinger lagers (from Belgium and Holland respectively) are incredible or, if you're more of a bitter man, you can try one of the Okell's offerings, a monthly guest beer or, if none of that takes your fancy, you can even put in personal requests! Honestly, I have no vested interest in this pub, but it's exactly what the city needed, and it's a very welcome addition. I feel like an old friend has returned home, and I honestly believe that this will now revitalise the whole of Lower Bridge Street. You might think it would steal trade from the Falcon, The King's Head and The Cross Keys but, instead, I think it will just draw trade back to them all. Who knows, even the Lobby might have survived, if this pub had arrived just twelve months sooner. At the end of the day, the Lobby was a very cool and pleasant bar, but it just didn't seem to be able to draw the trade from the rest of the town. Hopefully, now, Chester has a new drinking "quarter", and a viable alternative to the fun pubs and style bars of the centre of town. If you like the Fat Cat and Harker's, then this is the new one to try. As I say, Falcon, King's Head, Cross Keys, Golden Eagle, City Bells, and many more.... here's the benchmark....learn the lesson!
Previous review...
Old fashioned character pubs are getting rather thin on the ground in Chester. They're a long time in the making, and, if we lose one every other year, it won't be long before they're just a memory. With the Axe, the Deva and Barlow's being lost in recent time, there are now barely half a dozen pre-Victorian pubs left within the city walls.
Whether or not this is a bad thing depends on what you want in a pub, and indeed whether you want to be in a pub at all. Most of this dwindling handful are pretty grim affairs with atrocious carpets, bad air and an approach to customer service that might have been the norm in the 1950's, but is way off the mark today.
Of our olde worlde pubs, The Bear and Billet is the best. Located at the foot of Lower Bridge Street, just inside the Bridgegate, it is a massive, overwrought, seventeenth century black and white edifice. It houses the bar, on the second floor a restaurant - Benson's, and, in between, a first floor lounge. Inside, it seems smaller, cosy, but true to its initial promise. It is the full hit: beams, bare floors and horse brasses. Open fireplaces, mullioned windows and a good array of hand pumps on the bar. After several makeovers in recent years, it is now correct.
And although it is so typically Cestrian, it feels separate, a place apart from the main currents of trade. Even on a Saturday night there will be seats to spare. The customers seem to be there for the night, not just for a swift drink before moving on. It is as far away from the main drag as the geography of Chester will allow, and this makes it feel almost like a rural alehouse. It is a pub for the winter; to settle in and forget the clock.
The first floor houses a lounge, an ante-room to the restaurant upstairs and an overspill from the bar. This is pleasant enough in a casually comfortable way, but you won't be missing anything by staying downstairs.
Beers are well kept and service is friendly and attentive. How rarely do we get to say that?
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