Pub of the Week: The Elmer’s Arms

It might be pushing 30C outside in the rush hour traffic on Old Market, but inside the tiny Elmer’s Arms, it’s blessedly cool. The only table that fits in the front window is full of young drinkers with perfect black eyeliner, drainpipe trousers and hair tied up in colourful bandanas discussing their favourite musicians.

The rest of the window is taken up with a set of DJ decks and a massive pair of speakers that not-so-subtly hint at the late-night reputation this 60s-style club has already attained, barely a fortnight after opening.

“Last night was a late one,” admits the eponymous Elmer as he pours out a pint of North Street Cider. In a vintage brown short-sleeve shirt and with manicured greying mutton chop whiskers, he is as timeless as the rest of the bar.

The previous evening he’d hosted several local DJs, who played late into the night – all on 45s, of course.

The simple interior contains nods to the Grade II-listed building’s rich history

Around the base of the bar, green ceramic tiles have been polished up and gently lit, and a glass panel in an Art Deco style has been turned into a light box. There are no pump clips here, nor even any trendy chalk board demarcations.

Taps with the likes of Moor Beer’s Claudia and the aptly named Lervig’s House Party and Lost & Grounded’s No Rest for Dancers flowing through them pop straight out of more retro brown tiling. A couple of shelves full of spirits sit on both sides, and a repurposed bit of wood that might once have been a milk crate hosts the menu.

Opposite the bar is a beautiful Jupiter 80 jukebox, with angles in all the right places, which has been polished until it gleams. “French,” Elmer says, looking upon it like you might a cherished newborn. “Got it on eBay. When it’s dark it lights up that whole wall. It’s only got a little speaker but it’s really loud.”

Its teal and duck-egg blue tones have been picked out in the colours of the pub’s walls, while the door trims are the same shade of Victorian pub green as the tiles in a nod to the Grade II-listed building’s rich history.

A lot of effort has gone into making this place a retro delight, but it all feels completely genuine – no doubt because Elmer lives and breathes this era. That it has become trendy again is just convenient for his business model.

The Jupiter 80 jukebox, Elmer’s pride and joy

A couple of men come in for a drink and a chat, and Elmer waves them in with an expensive bike, letting them prop it by – but carefully not touching – the jukebox.

They ponder the beer selection over several enormous jars of pickled eggs that already seem to have been there for decades, and a box of records that the punters will be choosing from this evening. Anything goes, apparently, and as it’s vinyl we’ll be hearing the whole album as the band intended.

“You might find something you like,” Elmer says, “or you might not. Goes both ways!”

The rockabilly group in the window vacate the bench seat that’s been newly upholstered in a vibrant crushed purple velvet, and Tennessee Ernie Ford’s Sixteen Tons plays out over the bar. Listening to the baritone of the man who was born in Bristol, Tennessee, it’s not hard to imagine yourself in a home from home on the other side of the Atlantic.

The Elmer’s Arms, 53 Old Market Street, Bristol, BS2 0ER

www.facebook.com/theelmersarms