Mooring up at Sin Bin
With views over Chatham Maritime Marina and boats aplenty it proved to be an idyllic setting to enjoy a late afternoon drink in the spring sunshine at Shepherd Neame’s new Sin Bin bar.
But the backdrop is not the main draw for customers at this new Kentish venue because the former Pier Five Bar and Kitchen has been transformed into an immersive space dedicated to live sport and social gaming with multiple large screens showing various sports, interactive darts and retro gaming consoles located in the booths.
It’s an expansive space with a number of booths, a bookable mezzanine area and a large outside space where you can get closer to the maritime vibes and spot across the marina the ornate red brick building that houses the Copper Rivet Distillery.
The bar has been given a unique look by London graffiti artist James Titchner, whose tags and murals are complemented by a bespoke resin bar top within which are images celebrating iconic sporting moments and memorabilia.
My visit was made three weeks after the transformation had taken place and already the bar had been delivering impressive numbers and far outpacing the previous format, according to general manager Rachel Webb, who had moved from Shepherd Neame’s riverside pub, The Boathouse in Yalding.
She has been joined by head chef Dan Archer whose bold food we tested out. Our selection comprised lemon corn ribs, a spice bag of fries with katsu sauce, very impressively sized onion rings that measured around four inch in diameter, chicken strips, a large poke bowl and calamari. They were all juiced-up by excellent sauces, spices and herbs that proved to a strong feature of the menu. There were also the likes of dirty burgers, wings, pizzas, lighter bites and a kids’ menu available.
Notable was the calamari that can often be a flavour-light dish but here the chewy/crunchy rings came with kimchi mayo, spring onions, red chilli and lime as well as the unusual addition of seaweed. It is not everyone’s cup of tea but I reckon it was a welcome garnish giving a unique texture to the dish. My vegetarian daughter was impressed by the colour on the table from the various dishes because all too often American-influenced cuisine in sports-type bars can just be fried beige things with a monotone colour palette.
On the drinks front they’ve jettisoned cask and gone all out on keg beers that includes the site’s own Sin Bin Dockside Lager. The only Shepherd Neame-badged beer is First Drop, which was fine by me as it is probably my favourite beer from the Faversham-based brewery and there were plenty of other customers drinking it during my visit. There is also a selection of cocktails at affordable prices.
It was a very enjoyable visit to a new part of town for me and clearly the mix of live sports, games and the colourful, flavour-packed food is proving a strong draw for the locals. And there’s also the marina view too.
Glynn Davis, editor, Beer Insider