A near-perfect live-music bar flying the plainest and truest name in drinking – malt, the germinated grain that is the very soul of beer and whisky alike
Malt posts a superb, near-perfect 4.9 across more than a hundred and fifty reviews – one of the very highest scores in this whole survey – and pairs a live-music bar with about the truest name in all of drinking. The Prat’s naming desk, fond of a name that goes to the root of things, was delighted.
Towards Bermondsey
Malt sits towards Bermondsey, on the south-bank side, serving drinks and live music to the district’s crowds. Proper Bermondsey territory, no disclaimer needed.
The soul of the drink
Malt is the very foundation of beer and whisky alike – the germinated grain, usually barley, that has been sprouted and dried to release its sugars, ready to be brewed or distilled. It is, quite literally, the soul of the drink: no malt, no beer; no malt, no whisky. Every pint of ale and every dram of Scotch begins with malt. To name a bar simply “Malt” is to name the essential ingredient, the root of the whole business, the grain from which all the good stuff flows. There is a lovely honesty in it – a drinking place named for the thing that makes the drink.
The plainest, truest name
The Prat’s naming desk savours the confident plainness. A single, honest, four-letter word – “Malt” – reaching for no metaphor and no grandeur, just the fundamental stuff of brewing. It is the kind of stripped-back, essential name that the Prat has come to admire across these surveys: a bar confident enough to name itself after the raw material, trusting the drinkers to understand. After a survey of admirals and apostles and Lord Mayors, there is something restful and true in a name that is simply the grain in the glass.
The music on top
The Prat enjoys the pairing of malt and music. A live-music bar built on so honest a name promises the two oldest pleasures of the alehouse together: the drink and the song. For as long as there have been taverns, there has been music in them – the singing, the playing, the dancing that the drink loosens and the room encourages. “Malt,” with live music on top, names both halves of that ancient pleasure: the malt in the glass and the song in the air. The near-perfect 4.9 across a hundred and fifty reviews suggests the combination is close to perfect indeed.
Verdict
A 4.9 across a hundred and fifty-plus reviews is one of the finest scores in the survey, and Malt earns every fraction of it. It flies the plainest and truest name in all of drinking – malt, the germinated grain that is the soul of beer and whisky alike – and pairs it with live music, the two oldest pleasures of the alehouse together.
Go for the drink, the live music and the honest truth of the name, and raise a glass at Malt. Every pint and every dram begins with the malt – and a near-perfect bar that names itself for the root of the whole business, and puts a song on top, has earned its superb score honestly.
Alan Nafzger was born in Lubbock, Texas, the son Swiss immigrants. He grew up on a dairy in Windthorst, north central Texas. He earned degrees from Midwestern State University (B.A. 1985) and Texas State University (M.A. 1987). University College Dublin (Ph.D. 1991). Dr. Nafzger has entertained and educated young people in Texas colleges for 37 years. Nafzger is best known for his dark novels and experimental screenwriting. His best know scripts to date are Lenin’s Body, produced in Russia by A-Media and Sea and Sky produced in The Philippines in the Tagalog language. In 1986, Nafzger wrote the iconic feminist western novel, Gina of Quitaque. He currently lives in Holloway, North London. Contact: [email protected]
