What started off as a pop-up in a former office space is now a permanent presence on Upper Street – although the Taproom’s raw-edged, post-nuclear pose won’t impress Islington’s chichi quinoa
classes. Parked at communal tables, local rock chicks and rough boys are here for the beer, not fancy sips of negroni sbagliato: there’s a daily cast of around 30 brews on tap, so anticipate amber
joys from the likes of Bristol’s Arbor Brewery, Manchester’s Marble, Somerset’s Moor Beer Co, Porthmadog’s Purple Moose, London Fields, Redemption, Crate in Hackney, and new-wave craft heroes such
as Siren (from Berkshire brewmeister Ryan Witter-Merithew of Finchampstead). Also expect a barrage of bottled beers, artisan ciders, whiskies, meat and cheese boards, billycan stew, hog roasts in
the backyard, pub quizzes, and a regular serving of jangly guitars by Jim Morrison revivalists.