The State Bar.

The State Bar

The woman who has held the licence for about thirty years bakes the pie herself, and her son built the beer list that made the pub's name before he died at forty.

Why go

Seven cask lines, six of them changing. Pellicle counted seven constantly rotating lines in 2022 and CAMRA's branch survey in March 2026 records 6 changing beers and 1 regular beer, which is the same pub, four years apart, still moving (Pellicle, CAMRA). The branch also notes what the buying reaches for: unfined beers and strongly hopped beers which are rarely seen in Glasgow. CAMRA has given it Glasgow Pub of the Year seven times since 2007, four of them consecutively from 2014 to 2017. The house beer, State No. 3, is a Scottish ale Stewart Brewing makes for the pub, named after where it sits on the board. Upstairs is an Edwardian horseshoe bar that stays neutral about football, which Pellicle called a rare blessing in Glasgow. Downstairs feels like the cosy library of a well-to-do Victorian household, complete with dusty books to read, well-worn leather chairs and a crackling fireplace, with a stage for the blues jam.

Order this / avoid

• Order: whatever is on the six changing lines, then State No. 3 if you want the house one. The pie, which the landlord bakes. A McEwan's 80 shilling if you want the local order.
• Avoid: stopping at the upstairs bar. The room downstairs is the one people come back for, and weekend nights off the Sauchiehall strip are busy.

What locals & experts say

• Robbie Pickering, head of publicity, CAMRA Glasgow and West Scotland, quoted in Pellicle: The reason for the State's success is simple; excellent beer quality which is based on good turnover and top-notch cellarmanship. And on where it sits in the city: Glasgow has many friendly and atmospheric pubs, but only a few come close to The State for quality and range of beer.1
• Nancy Lyons, the licensee, on the strategy behind it: Our whole modus operandi is to offer something different to every other similar venue in the city. Glasgow is not a big city... Because of that, we have to give customers a reason to keep coming back, and thankfully for us, they always do.1
• Malcolm Downie, head brewer at Fyne Ales, on the pair who built it: Jason steadfastly believed in having quality cask always being on offer with quite a holistic view, whereas Nancy always had her business head-on at all times.1
• CAMRA Glasgow & West of Scotland branch, survey updated March 2026: The ale choice often includes unfined beers and strongly hopped beers which are rarely seen in Glasgow. The same listing records There are blues sessions on alternate Tuesdays.2
• Local rec: Jeff's save. He left no note on it.

Good to know

• Where: 148A Holland Street, on the link between Sauchiehall Street and Bath Street, a short walk from the King's Theatre and the Glasgow Film Theatre.
• Timing: no website exists, so no hours can be cited. It is a city-centre pub off the strip and it gets busy at weekends.
• Music: blues sessions on alternate Tuesdays, plus comedy and acoustic nights on the downstairs stage.
• The walls: an informal archive of Glasgow's lost music halls, posters and photographs from the 1950s and 60s boom.
• The tribute: the signed poster near the toilets, a raised Northern Soul fist reading "CASK ALE - THE STATE" and "KEEP THE FAITH", is for Jason Lyons, the former manager who sourced the beer and died suddenly in 2016 aged 40.
• The building: opened 1906, the Edwardian interior lost to a 1960s refurbishment and rebuilt since. CAMRA lists it under its Outstanding Conversions and Restorations designation, with a curved neo-Victorian island bar and an original stained-glass heraldic window. That is architecture and it is scored as such.
• Hygiene: the Food Hygiene Information Scheme records a Pass, rating date 19 February 2020 (FHRSID 108133, Glasgow City Council). Pass is the clean result in the Scottish scheme, and that inspection is six and a half years old, which is unsurprising for a pub whose kitchen is one pie a day.3

Verdict

should-visit — Seven cask lines, six of them changing, in a pub that has won CAMRA's Glasgow Pub of the Year seven times since 2007 including four years straight from 2014 to 2017. Two independent sources four years apart confirm it, Pellicle in 2022 and the CAMRA branch survey in March 2026, so the rotation is a standing practice rather than a good week. The branch's own publicity officer explains it without romance: 'excellent beer quality which is based on good turnover and top-notch cellarmanship.' The buying reaches past the safe list to unfined and heavily hopped beers rarely seen in Glasgow, with a house Scottish ale from Stewart Brewing called State No. 3 after its position on the board. Nancy Lyons has run it for about three decades and bakes the daily pie; her son Jason built the beer list before he died in 2016, and the Northern Soul fist on the wall reading KEEP THE FAITH is his. Upstairs is an Edwardian horseshoe bar that stays neutral about football. Downstairs is a Victorian library with a fire, dusty books and a stage for the blues jam. This is what the Laurieston ruling was measuring against: same class of heritage room, and here the beer actually moves.