THE SNUG

Hey everyone! So, as someone who lives within a very easy train ride to London, I’m pretty guilty of just heading into the capital when I want to find a great cocktail bar, quirky lunch spot or somewhere instagrammable for brunch, but lately, I decided it was about time I started searching a little closer to home.

Not only does heading out a few minutes up the road save a lot of money in travel, but sometimes you can find yourself pleasantly surprised with places right on your doorstep. Having explored most places in our own town, we decided to branch out just a little further to surrounding towns and cities. Living in Hertfordshire, just outside of Essex, myself and my Husband are within easy reach of lots of surrounding areas such as Epping, Loughton, Stansted, Cambridge and Hertford, which is where we headed for lunch today. 

After a little searching around on google, we decided to head to The Snug, which is located behind the Hertford Corn Exchange on the high street. The Snug has a few locations including Hertford, St Albans and Cambridge, (so there may well be one near you!) but it doesn’t feel like a typical chain restaurant/ bar at all because of the unique, cosy atmosphere and quirky decor. Darren and I initially intended on heading there for brunch, but after looking at the cocktail menu online, we couldn’t resist trying them and lunch felt a more socially acceptable time to do so! Don’t be fooled by the picture of the clock, we actually went at around 12:30 in the afternoon!

We sat down at a cute little table with a faux cow skin bench one side and two cute mismatched armchairs on the other. We were surrounded by exposed brick walls, daffodils in glass bottles, board games and quirky mismatched decor. I particularly loved the Wayne’s World prints on the walls! The atmosphere in there was super relaxed and cosy and even though it was midday on a Sunday and pretty quiet, there was still a really great vibe. The staff were super friendly and they can certainly make a mean cocktail! 

On Sundays, cocktails are two for one all day and on Monday to Saturday, they have a happy hour where the same offer applies from 3pm-7pm. Darren had two Singapore Slings and I had two French Martinis - both were absolutely amazing, it was quite possibly the best French Martini I’ve ever had! Something that I really loved was that all the cocktails on the menu were included in the happy hour deal, sometimes you find bars will only do certain cocktails in a happy hour deal and often it’s a pretty limited selection so to have the whole (huge!) menu to choose from was fab. 

We had lunch in there also, both of us had a sandwich from the lunch menu, they do have a main menu for the whole day too, but the lunch menu has a few bits and pieces on it for a slightly lower price. There are quite a few options including veggie and some that can be altered to be vegan. You can grab a sandwich and some tortilla chips for £5.95 which is a fab deal. We had a sandwich each and shared some chips and this with four top quality cocktails came to just over £30, which I thought was a pretty fab deal! 

If you like the sound of The Snug (and I can’t see why you wouldn’t!), definitely check out their website and their locations to see if there’s one near you as I’d thoroughly recommend checking it out!

Have you found any hidden gems where you live? Do you have a favourite spot local to you? I'd love to know!