The Dog and Bone

The Telegraph review 2014.

Pubs don’t get more local than the Dog and Bone. This isn’t some gigantic, city-centre boozorium, it’s half a mile away from Lincoln’s thronging High Street, along a road full of charity shops and student lodgings, then right at the butcher’s shop on the corner.
It sits nestled up to a line of small, terraced houses, and, once you’re inside, turns out to be not much bigger than the neighbouring buildings.
Snug isn’t just the word for the room you’re in, it’s a description of the atmosphere. There are stained-glass windows at the front door, local artists’ pictures on the wall, and rows of well-filled bookshelves, which operate as a library. You walk on ancient, darkened floorboards, and sit on chairs enlivened by cushions bearing faces that look very much like the pub’s resident dog.
The first thing that strikes you is how busy the blackboards are. Whereas most pubs make do with a monthly pub quiz, the Dog and Bone offers folk and rock jam sessions, plus roast lunch on the third Sunday of the month. Not to mention a burger night, a beer festival and a special sewing-and-gossiping night titled “Stitch and Bitch”. And there are yet more plans, for a sports night and a pub walk.
All that plus free Wi-Fi, a Twitter address and an eccentric selection of decor from a pink coal scuttle to the antiquated wireless sets lining the top of the bar. No wonder it’s the county’s Camra Pub of the Year.
Step outside and you’re in a small but cleverly laid-out garden (scrunchy stones, rather than grass), with 10 leafy tables, one of them in a grapevine-covered gazebo. Plus there’s a little, carriage-sized shed (The Kennel) to cope with overflow, due to either rain or customer numbers.
Sit out in the garden, and you can hear the great cathedral bell tolling from the top of the hill. To start with, you check your watch to see it’s telling the right time, but after a while you stop taking any notice.
You may not actually be at home here, but it feels as if you are.