The beer! The beer! The beer! And the wine! The wine! The wine! Much like the adult version of Aladdin's magic treasure cave, The Cave on Great Western Road has a mouth-watering selection of both craft beers from across the UK and further afield - one of several quality beer shops in the area, but definitely the winner for most laid back, least fuss, and best value. I recently described The Cave as the snobby beer shop for people who hate snobby beer shops. If you disregard the sophisticated range of ales and lagers and IPAs and porters and all the other beers under the sun, you could easily mistake your surroundings for a corner shop or convenience store - only full of delicious beer and wine. I don't want to undersell their inventory of wines, but to be honest, I am so attached to Inverarity One to One on Bath Street that I rarely buy wine anywhere else unless I'm just picking up a bottle at the supermarket on my way home. I have, though, purchased wine at The Cave and have even taken them up on a store recommendation, which they keep in giant wicker baskets - who could resist picking a bottle out of a giant wicker basket?? I dream of having a kitchen full of wicker baskets of wine, the best unit measure of wine in my opinion :) In my experience, the recommended bottles have been quality wines that match their descriptions and always have very reasonable price tags.
I would recommend The Cave over it's neighbour up the road Valhalla's Goat for value but if you are going to buy wine on Great Western Road and want some fairly high-falutin' advice, you may want to try Valhalla's. If you want some easy-going, browser-friendly, no-Beer IQ-required craft beer, The Cave is your best bet. If you hail from the capital, The Cave reminds me of Cornelius on Easter Road in Edinburgh, but perhaps even more relaxed and down-played.
On my last visit I tried a few of the Samual Smith's fruity beers - not everyone's cup of tea (my husband was thoroughly disgusted) but if you like a bitter-sweet Frambozen or even a summery Fruhli, you'll probably enjoy the Samuel Smith's organic raspberry ale. To my surprise, however, Sam Smith's Apricot was the real treat! Tart and sweet and malty all at the same time! I also noticed they have the Tiny Rebel IPA, a brewery down in Wales that does a great range of beers and a label worth keeping your eye on. The Cave also stocks a few of my favourites from back home in the States including Dale's and even the flagship beer of my university days, Pabst Blue Ribbon *sighs*
Hope you drop in - if you like beer, you'll like The Cave. read more