The Halesowen bar that's become a leading venue for obscure and different beers

Plenty of bars and pubs have tried to stock unique, rare and obscure drinks and provide a different type of drinking experience for their customers.

One bar which has worked to be a leading venue for obscure and different beers is Roberto's Bar on Halesowen High Street, one of the newest entrants in the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) Good Beer Guide 2025.

The micropub is based on a traditional Belgian bar, full of colour and paintings on the wall, with a cosy feeling which is highlighted by the two red Chesterfield sofas at the front of the bar.

Roberto's Bar is owned and run by Roberto Ross, who opened it up in late 2022 after moving from Digbeth, and said that he wanted to run a bar after so many years of working in the industry in different places.

He said: "It's something I'd always wanted to do as I've been a professional beer sommelier for about 15 years and I own a little brewery in Netherton called Cult of Oak, so the bar was just and extension of what I wanted to do.

"It started as a place in Digbeth, but not sooner that two months after opening, Covid had hit and we were locked down, then it never quite got off the ground after that.

"After that, I looked at options and decided to open in Halesowen as I've lived here for 21 years and it made sense for me to do that."

Mr Ross spoke of his experience in the industry, having worked for breweries in Belgium and run beer festivals, as well as working in bars and doing as much as he could within the beer industry.

He also described himself as a self-confessed beer snob, saying that his whole idea was stock drinks that were good, that were unusual and which couldn't be bought anywhere else.

He said: "One of the things we make sure we do is not stock anything which is mass-produced by a Macro-brewery, so you're not not going to see Carling or Stella or Guinness or Strongbow or anything like that.

"Anything from someone who is small and independent is what we do here and it's been specifically designed to only support the companies I want to support and they can be local or they can be from abroad.

"I stock a lot of Belgian stuff that you can't get hold of over here and, for instance, I have Bavik Super Pils, which is the only lager I stock and is from West Flanders, is unfiltered and has a 30 day maturation period, so it's good quality and you can't get hold of it anywhere else on draft in the country."

The bar has three handpulls, as well as 10 craft kegs and 12 ciders on draft, plus 40 different drinks in the fridge, and Mr Ross said the stock changed so regularly that people might not have the same drink on multiple visits to the bar.

He said the look of the pub was also influenced by bars in Belgium, saying that he wanted to do the opposite to what a lot of craft beer places were doing.

He said: "One of the things I dislike about the modern craft beer industry, in a way, is that a lot of the bars seem to go down the industrial and exposed look, so pallets and exposed ceilings.

"I didn't want any of that, I wanted the opposite and for it to be cosy and warm, so when you walk in, it's got an old-fashioned feeling to it, with the seats having covers on and the red Chesterfields."

Mr Ross said the bar helped to bring together that community of drinkers he had met over the years, particularly from his days working in another pub in Halesowen.

He said: "I consider myself a professional drinker and I have drunk all over the country as it's my hobby and what I like to do, and the community in Halesowen is unlike anything else that existed, then that venue changed and the community split up.

"I wanted to recreate that feeling, so when I opened this bar, I reached out to every single person who was still alive from that time and they all now drink in my bar.

"I know 99 per cent of the customers by their first names and if anyone new comes in, it doesn't take long for them to integrate very quickly and I think that if you want a ready made community to join, then this is the place."