Shipley / Saltaire – SALT Bar and Kitchen

I visited the SALT Bar & Kitchen last week, although I’m now back in the area and it’s a reminder to myself I never wrote about my little excursion to this venue which is now owned by Ossett Brewery. It’s a short walk from the Saltaire UNESCO World Heritage site, so anyone going there might be interested in walking here as well to enjoy the history of this building. And the beer obviously.

The bar is located in a former tramshed, it’s an impressive set-up and it was popular when I was there, with plenty of customers sitting outside with the wasps, seagulls and other dangerous animals that exist in this country.

The whole set-up is modern and on-trend, with a central bar area.

I wasn’t sure what food they did, but it transpired to be pretty much just pizzas. This is an entirely agreeable set-up to me and although this wasn’t the cheapest, it had some of the best toppings that I’ve had a pizza in terms of the quality of the ingredients. I was suitably impressed with this and it went well with my Hessian coffee stout from their own brewery.

I went through a few third pints of beer, all of which were decent options, although I particularly liked this one, the Risk & Reward imperial stout from their own brewery. Also available at the bar were the Rat beers, which I saw at the Rat and Ratchet pub in Huddersfield this week, and they also sold all of the SALT beers.

At the rear of the bar is the SALT Beer Factory that they said I could have a little look at. That wasn’t a special gesture, it’s open to everyone on weekends, but I did enjoy having a meander around their brewery set-up.

I was impressed at this entire arrangement, the service was friendly, the staff were knowledgeable, the location was clean and modern, it’s definitely a destination venue. It’s also a marvellous advertisement for the brewery, quite different from the perhaps slightly less exciting set-up that Magic Rock have in Huddersfield. I’d also say that this should be listed in the Good Beer Guide, as they have cask and keg options, and this is a magnificent example of how to run a venue professionally.