Part of our Best Pubs in London microsite. Is your local listed?
"Beer" and "bear" are pronounced the same in the part of the North from which your correspondent originally hails. Hilarity has ensued when, on more than one occasion, a visiting relative has asked the barkeep "What bears do you have? Do you have a mild bear?"
Imagine the confusion in this place. It's named, of course, for Paddington Bear. The Bear pub is indeed in Paddington, but calling it The Paddington Bear would get the copyright infringement lawyers to bear down with claws. It should also not be mixed up with the Mad Bishop and Bear within Paddington station — though that would make a fun, themed pub crawl.
This relatively new pub is the latest branch of the Craft Beer Co., and only the second not to be badged as such (the other being the original CASK in Pimlico).
Fans of the small chain (and that's to say anybody who's stepped inside) will know the score. Modern decor, tasty food, super-friendly bar staff (they even joined in when we started whistling along to a track by The Cure) and, most saliently, an epic choice of beers. We were too bedazzled to count the taps, but some later desk research reveals 29 beers on keg, 6 on cask and over 200 bottles. That'll keep your Untapp'd app busy for a while.
This is, by a country mile, the best pub in the area for those after an interesting pint. The next best is the Brewdog on the basin... but that's a Brewdog, and lacking in cask (among other perceived faults). Set back a fair ways from Praed Street, the Bear also lacks the transient crowds from the station and hotels, hence you're likelier to get a more civilised drink. Paddington himself would approve.
