The Hoptimist

The Hoptimist opened on Market Street in Abergele in October 2018 as the town's first micro pub, originally a joint venture between Cwrw Ial and Dovecote breweries. A local family took over the business in April 2021 and now run it independently. The pub occupies a former building society office and serves three rotating cask ales plus keg beers and ciders, with prices and strengths chalked on a blackboard behind the bar. There is no food, television or pool table here, just conversation, though a large rear courtyard gives drinkers somewhere to sit in fine weather. Live acoustic music plays on Sunday afternoons, and CAMRA members get twenty pence off a pint. The pub sits on Arriva bus routes 12 and 13 and welcomes dogs.