Whatever you do, don’t expect to have one of everything at the bar.
Because the Rook and Gaskill will boast no fewer than 30 beers or ciders on tap when it reopens next week.
The award-winning Lawrence Street pub will be relaunched with one of the biggest beer ranges in the city – just in time for its 200th birthday.
Landlord Paul Marshall has spent £5,000 to add 20 new beer lines to the Rook’s bar.
And he reckons the selection will be bettered only by York Tap beside the railway station.
Award winner
A relaunch event will be held next Wednesday evening (December 13) with several local brewers joining customers to sample the new range.
The Rook and Gaskill, which dates back to 1818 under previous names, was named York Camra’s pub of the year in 2016.
Paul received the same award in 2012 at his previous pub, The Waggon and Horses found across the road.
The refit involves the creation of 20 keg beer taps on a wall behind the bar, which will include two Bavarian beers never before available in York.
There will also be ten cask beers available.
Permanent products will include Kozel, Bitburger, Adnams Mosaic, Camden Hells, Camden Pale, Aspalls, Scheiderweiss, Theakston’s Barista Stout, and Edel and Fels, both by Bavarian brewery ABK.
Mr Marshall said:
You can’t stand still in this industry, you need to keep moving forward and I wanted to do that here. The Rook is a great pub and I didn’t want to interfere with the ambience we have by doing a drastic refurb inside, but this allows us to really improve our beer range.
We look forward to seeing our regulars back in to try the new beers, and we’d love to see new customers along as well to see what is available.
We have something for everybody now, and if you don’t like beer we also have good wines and gins and decent food.
Brilliant pub city
Mr Marshall and his wife Mandy moved to York from Lincolnshire in 2008, and ran The Waggon and Horses for almost six years before moving across the road to The Rook and Gaskill in 2014.
He said: “York is a brilliant city for pubs. There’s nowhere else with so many pubs in such a small area doing so much good beer, so we have to be at the top of our game all the time.”
The Rook and Gaskill was originally known as The Wheatsheaf, and is first recorded in the city archives in 1818.
It was given its current name in 2002 – named after sheep thieves Peter Rook and Leonard Gaskill, the last people hanged at Greendykes in York, in 1676.
Nick Love, pub protection officer for the York branch of Camra, said:
The Rook & Gaskill is a pub with a great reputation for real ale and the new craft beer wall will be a great addition to give beer drinkers a fantastically wide choice of the very best beers rom across Yorkshire and further afield.
Any pub with a commitment to serving great beer gets out support, during tough times for pubs generally across the UK.