We chat to Lucy Simons, co-owner at The Abdication...
Describe your pub in three words?
Cosy, welcoming and down-to-earth.
Tell us something interesting about the place…
We love our location! Daybrook is an overlooked suburb with a serious brewing heritage. We look out over to the iconic Home Brewery building from a beautiful, Grade II listed parade of shops built in 1936-7. It’s called Coronation Buildings, so it simply followed to name the pub after Edward VIII’s abdication.
What’s the best thing about your job?
Getting to choose a fine selection of beers and ciders from the best independent producers. It’s a delight connecting up with other passionate small business folks.
What’s the worst?
I’ve honestly struggled to think of something… apart from cleaning the toilets.
What’s your best selling drink?
Cask Ale is our biggest seller by far – bucking the national trend of falling sales across the sector.
What’s your most expensive drink?
Quite the reverse, people more often remark on the value for money – we still have a fair number of sub £4 pints!
What’s your personal favourite tipple?
Saison Du Pont, a classic Belgian beer, is my desert island beer, so having it on the taps in my pub earlier this year was a total treat.
Who’s the most famous person you’ve had drinking in your place?
Our electrician is a guy called Devon White, but when he called in for a pint it caused a bit of a commotion. Totally unbeknown to me he was also a professional footballer, including a spell at Notts County back in the 1990s. The regulars made a real fuss of him.
What’s the best thing a customer has ever said to you?
“We were going to move out of the area until you opened.”
How would you persuade someone who’s never visited your pub to entice them in?
We’ve now been listed in CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide for ten years in a row, so you know you’ll get a delicious pint served in tip top condition.
Visit The Abdication at 89 Mansfield Rd, Daybrook, NG5 6BH
theabdication.co.uk
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