In terms of drinking cities, when you think of the East Midlands, Nottingham and Derby might spring to mind. But what of Lincoln? It’s not somewhere you’re likely to pass through or end up by accident. So what makes Lincoln worth a visit for the beer tourist?

The answer is simple: The Strait and Narrow.

Situated at the foot of Steep Hill, where it meets the top of Lincoln High Street, for me, the Strait is a pub like no other in the UK. It’s not traditional, it’s not a micropub, it’s not a family pub, it’s not a foodie pub, a brewpub, or a sports pub. So what exactly is it? Well… it’s a Strait and Narrow thing.

“There’s a lot of 1990s in it, [our] inspiration came from all over the world,” Jez Nash, who co-owns the pub with friend Olly Davies, tells me. “We want to put the right drink in your hand and give you a really fun, safe time while you’re in the bar.”

“We’re also fiercely proud of being independent. We like to take risks and offer an original experience for [our] customers,” he adds.

Immediately upon entering, it feels like you’re transported to another country. The long bar dominating the room's left took me back to San Diego and the Monkey Paw Brewpub (sadly now extinct). The room—riddled with cosy nooks—is dimly lit by chandeliers, spotlights and Tiffany lamps—an odd mix that somehow just works. The background music hits that sweet spot of being loud enough to lose yourself while being comfortably able to hear conversations.

“Hip hop and breakbeat was always going to be the soundtrack to the bar,” Jez says. “A steady beat and a nice bass line keep heads nodding, feet tapping and drinks going down.” There is an undeniable buzz about the place and it oozes personality. It’s not trying to be cool: it simply is.

“Olly and I spent a lot of time watching how people became successful in the trade. We decided to go against the advice everyone gives you: don’t try and do everything,” Jez tells me. “We looked at over 80 different locations until one day we walked down the Strait in Lincoln and saw an abandoned ex-catalogue shop. As soon as we walked in we realised this was the place.”

““A steady beat and a nice bass line keeps heads nodding, feet tapping and drinks going down.””

— Jez Nash, The Strait & Narrow

A warm welcome from our hosts (“how has your day been?”) is followed up with personalised drinks recommendations. My partner doesn’t drink and is bored of lemonade. I’m assured that’s no problem, as the bartender sets to work making up a mocktail on the spot.

My excitement builds as I peruse the exquisite beer menu. I begin with a Rearea from West Yorkshire’s Tartarus Beer. The strawberry, lime and coconut overrode the ‘sour’ (a word that scares me) in the description. And my decision proved a good one; this cocktail-inspired beer was delicious.

As a non-drinker, my partner likes to be stimulated by his surroundings when in a pub. The Strait is full of conversation pieces: a stag’s head, flowery wallpaper, Chewbacca, beer signs and posters, books and a huge mirror—impeccably clean, as are the big windows at the front, which are so clean you almost feel like you’re out on the street.

There are glass cabinets displaying beer bottles, facilitating a game of “which beers have you had?”, which morphed into me telling stories about where I’d had the beers and the memories they evoked (“that Leffe Brune is really good in casseroles.”) It’s somehow homely, like being in your living room.

There is no food and no TV in sight, forcing you to focus on your surroundings: the drinks, the company, the vibe. As I watch groups of people of all ages smiling and laughing, coming and going, I wonder if everyone in the world will one day pass through—and really hope they do. There’s usually at least one couple making out as they embrace the present. There is a strong female presence, with at least one woman at every table. Unusually for a large, busy pub, I feel comfortable here.

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The Ask For Angela campaign—where customers can ask for help from bar staff to help extract them from a difficult situation (for example if they feel at risk on a Tinder date)—began in Lincolnshire and The Strait got on board straight away.

“It’s something that we used to do a version of anyway: knowing what’s going on in your venue and making sure everyone is safe,” Jez says. “Hayley Crawford [the scheme’s founder] put together a really great idea that quickly communicated to customers that certain types of behaviour wouldn’t be tolerated, help was available and there was a mechanism that could be used to make sure everyone remained safe—discreetly if need be.”

The Strait also has a no-nonsense attitude towards drink spiking, as Jez explains:

“All of our staff are on the lookout for any type of suspicious behaviour. We’ve got CCTV to back it up plus we always have Drink Aware kits on site which can test for all types of substances,” he tells me. “A person’s drink can be tested as well as a suspicious person’s hand and the substance identified. We make no secret of the fact this is what we do and whilst spiking seems to have increased in our industry our approach has—touch wood—kept it out of our venue.”

As my conversation with Jez moves from the serious to the more convivial, I decide to order another drink. I opted for A Herald of Change and Disruption—a coffee porter from Manchester’s Cloudwater, accompanied by one of the pub’s designer shots, as I couldn’t get my head round how a lemon drizzle shot could taste of “Belgian chocolate cake.” Yet another example of how something shouldn’t work, but magically does in this enchanting establishment.

“All the cocktails are designed by the bar team,” Jez explains, adding that the latest beer cocktail menu has a cocktail called Belgian Whip—featuring whipped top of Delirium Tremens and banana foam with dark rum, butterscotch, cream soda and Yorkshire Tea.

“We choose our beers based on who’s making good stuff at the moment—our current favourites are Twisted Wheel, Tartarus and Top Rope—who are smashing out next level beers,” Jez tells me. “The breweries we stock have to also have the right ethos behind them.”

This pub feels very much alive at a time when many pubs and breweries have drawn their last breath in a challenging post-COVID environment. On my previous visit—during the days of table service only—I was captivated by the telephone on each table (the cleverly monikered Strait Exchange), allowing customers to communicate with each other and the bar staff despite the enforced restriction of movement.

““I don’t think it’s fair to compare Lincoln with other cities as it’s so much smaller but I think we hold our own.””

— Jez Nash, The Strait & Narrow

“Lockdown provided some unique challenges. We decided to focus on what we could do rather than what we couldn’t,” Jez says. “We started selling our packaged stock online and sold it all the first day. Strait Crates was born and we delivered to our customers every single day of lockdown”

I took advantage of this myself, adding a cheeky request for an added off-menu extra of Lincolnshire Plum Bread (a local delicacy that I can’t buy at home in Lancashire) with my beer delivery. I was delighted when the Strait obliged!

“When we came back from lockdown one in July 2020, the landscape was crazy: table service, no standing up, no changing tables, curfew—and I was struggling to find a hook that would solve the problems and make us different,” Jez tells me. “Andrew Wittich who owns Buzzbee’s Tonics said ‘you almost need a phone on every table like that yuppie pick up bar Kaspers in Soho in the 90s.’ I was googling Kaspers before he’d stopped speaking. That was it: The Strait Exchange was born.”

After this visit concluded I left with a new found love of sour beers, coffee and shots. The Strait had succeeded in educating my palate. I had no idea—after 30 years of drinking—that I could still be delighted by such amazing new flavours. It pulled me out of my comfort zone of stouts and porters and introduced me to a whole new universe of taste sensations.

Although I still wondered, how does Jez think Lincoln compares with more famous beer cities in terms of modern beer culture?

“I don’t think it’s fair to compare Lincoln with other cities as it’s so much smaller but I think we hold our own,” he tells me. “Along with us, there’s some great independent micro-pubs selling good craft beers: Beerheadz, the Imp and Angel, Tiny Tavern. And there’s some amazing proper boozers [like the] Treaty of Commerce, Golden Eagle, The Birdcage, The Vic and Strugglers. It’s great to see Lincoln people get behind these types of businesses as they are really what make a city stand out and have character and identity.”

While all of the above pubs are well worth a visit when you’re in Lincoln, the Strait is my only ‘must visit’ every time. It is well deserving of its Best City/Urban Pub crown at the 2022 Great British Pub Awards. Sometimes I just feel at home in a pub that simply feels right. I could never have imagined that this feeling had been so carefully crafted by Jez, Olly and the team—and this only makes me love the place even more than I already did from the moment I first stepped through its doors.