RAISE a toast! One of York's finest pubs is celebrating a landmark milestone.

Brigantes in Micklegate will turn ten years old this coming week - and they are planning spectacular festivities to mark the occasion.

York Press:

Inside the pub's extension, which was added in 2013

Landlord Kev Jones has secured beers from ten different breweries, one formed in each of the years the pub has been open.

Their ales will proudly line up along the pub's ten handpulls next week, and Kev hopes customers old and new will head along to join the celebrations.

The breweries taking part are:

  • 2006 - Saltaire
  • 2007 - Leeds
  • 2008 - Great Heck
  • 2009 - Ilkley
  • 2010 - Ridgeside
  • 2011 - Brass Castle
  • 2012 - Hop Studio
  • 2013 - Northern Monk
  • 2014 - Bad Co
  • 2015 - Ghost

The exact date on which the pub opened has become a little clouded, despite it being only ten years ago. The Evening Press of February 13, 2006, said it opened that day, although the pub have February 8 down as the landmark date. Perhaps a soft opening ahead of the formal opening confused them or us or both.

Either way, the festivities will begin on Monday with the beers taking pride of place on the bar, a buffet and the launch of a raffle in aid of Yorkshire Air Ambulance, tickets for which will be sold all week.

York Press:

Landlord Kev Jones, who has been there for the past eight and a half of those ten years, is clearly looking forward to the celebrations.

He says: "It has flown by really really quickly, but if you go back to the start and compare the climate in the street then and now, it has changed a lot.

"We are no longer standing out like a sore thumb on the street; we seem to have come into fashion. The Falcon Tap has opened and BrewDog are opening as well.

"A lot of people initially just referred to us as the no-smoking pub but as beer has come more into fashion our catchment is getting bigger.

"A lot of the best stuff we sell now was not even around ten years ago. Great Heck are fantastic and Bad Co are stunning and Brass Castle as well - they are three of my favourite breweries but ten years ago they were not around."

York Press:

Brigantes has become such a respected pioneer in York's beer scene that it is easy to forget that its original niche wasn't really about beer at all.

When it opened in February 2006, its unique selling point was that it was York's first and only non-smoking pub - hailed as a rare haven for those seeking fresh air.

When the England-wide smoking ban became law in July 2007 though, that niche was lost overnight and Brigantes instead cemented its reputation through other means - good food, superb beer and (just as importantly) knowledgeable service.

We're blessed in York that informed bar-staff are now easy to find, but Brigantes was ahead of most. Ask a barman or barmaid about a particular beer here, and you don't get a shrug or a recital of the brewery's blurb - you get genuine enthusiasm and personal opinion.

Staff are briefed to try the beers on sale, so they know what they're talking about when curious or uncertain customers seek advice - an important service at all times, but especially in a pub like this, where the beer range is so varied and rapidly-changing.

Over the years, Brigantes has won a flurry of accolades, being named Best Real Ale Pub in The Press Pub Awards 2011 and York Camra pub of the year in 2008 and 2011. Its expansion and redecoration in 2013 created more space for diners and changed the feel a little, but the beer selection has improved repeatedly, continually at the forefront of the beer scene in York.

Happy Birthday Brigantes - here's to the next 10 years!