THERE'S been another makeover on the Micklegate meander. This time it's the Phalanx And Firkin, formerly known as the Coach, and now known as The Priory (how ironic, a pub named after a drying out clinic!)

Many of the Firkin's regulars, some refugees from other local pubs that have been refurbished, were getting nervous as the pub shut for a week, wondering whether the facelift would suit.

Thankfully, everyone we've spoken to so far likes the new look: bright and cheerful without being overlit and garish. It is still pub-like but with the smartness of a bar.

The Priory was a big place to start with, but now it looks cavernous. Landlady Amanda Hamill assures me it's all down to a lick of paint, inside and out. "It's been tarted up," she said, adding that the staff have new uniforms.

Grub is advertised on a food board, there's an extra quiz machine and the drop down screen for sports has switched ends.

Amanda certainly knows how to look after her customers. When she had to shut up shop for a few days while the work was done, the closing date was put back so one of the regulars, Harry, could have his leaving party there before leaving for a better life in Amsterdam.

Now there's personal service.

u TALKING of Harry, the street will be a less colourful place without him. He worked at Walker's Bar, where he was vice captain of the 5s & 3s Mixed Pairs Drinking Team, the dominoes "aces" whose lucky charm, a conker, brought them nothing but misery.

Neither will friends forget his nosedive on to the pavement after he tried to leapfrog a Station Rise bollard to celebrate his win in a look-a-like competition at Toffs nightclub - for resembling Jesus.

The renaissance man also tested the theory that ants, when drunk, stagger only to the right; corrected English literature students who kept mixing up the canons of JRR Tolkien and JK Rowling; and served a pantomime horse, which after a mad half hour tripped over a barstool landing in a heap on the floor.

u IT'S all change at the Exhibition Group, Bar Talk has learned. The Bootham Tavern, close to the pub estate's HQ, the Exhibition, in Bootham, is up for sale.

We are told that this is not due to the future move of York City from Bootham Crescent, but because the Tavern is very much a straight up-and-down drinkers' pub. Nothing wrong with that of course, but it does not fit in with the Exhibition ethos: diversification.

The group is keen on pubs that can offer food and accommodation as well as beer.

With that in mind, it has acquired the Waggon and Horses, Gillygate, which is currently shut for a month-long makeover. It has rooms above.

When it reopens it will be called The Gillygate. (Following The Micklegate in Micklegate, are we seeing a new trend to name pubs after streets? Will the Sun Inn in Acomb become The B1224?)

Meanwhile, Thomas's Hotel on Museum Street is earmarked for a refurb soon. More as we get it.

Updated: 12:56 Saturday, March 29, 2003