The Whitefort is a grand looking pub and restaurant. The impressive establishment is enclosed between two pillars at either corner of the front of the building, surely as a reference to its name.
Built in 2003, it was recently bought over (after its previous owners encountered tough times and the bank got involved) by a family who own a few other establishments in the locality.
When you first walk into the pub, its like walking into the lobby of a luxurious hotel - well laid-out, spacious, high ceiling reminiscent of old Victorian buildings, and a wooden staircase with cast iron (i think) hand railings leading you up to the restaurant. There's also a small bar, more frequented by locals, into the left as you walk in.
It's a busy pub at the weekend, often with a local DJ playing tunes from the 80's on Saturday nights, and live music/two-pieces on a Friday and Sunday that create a good atmosphere. As you can tell from the entertainment, they're very much focused on getting the over-25's crowd in.
Unfortunately, you can't get Harp or Carlsberg on draught, due to the owners' contractual ties with Bass. That means they sell Tennents, which wouldn't be as popular. Personally, I wouldn't drink the stuff if it was free - in my opinion it tastes like what I imagine licking a rain-soaked Golden Retriever would. It's not a beer I would drink, and I know a lot of other drinkers who would avoid a pub where Tennents is the main beer on draught. They should do a survey in open-houses (bars which sell whatever beers they want and aren't tied to one particular brewery), and I would bet that Harp outsells Tennents by about 15 to 1, with Carlsberg not too far behind. Tennents is also famed (though I don't believe any empirical evidence exists for this, just anecdotal evidence from a lot of groggy people with thumping headaches) for its hangovers.
That being said, you can get Stella Artois and Beck's as alternatives, both of which are pretty good beers, the development and introduction of which I imagine saved many a Tennents seller from going under. These are beers I also avoid, as I believe they could be more appropriately used as a propellant in NASA's vehicles - still, two very good beers.
All-in-all, not a bad place to go for a night out if you're in the area, and hopefully the new owners continue to promote it with the energy they have been, but if I was staying in the city-centre I couldn't find any reason to travel up there. read more