Lowlander’s new highlight

The two Lowlander cafés in London are a Belgian and Dutch beer delight. We sent Melissa Cole to investigate

We hear a lot about the European café culture and how in Britain, thanks to flexible licensing, we will be seeing more of it.

But there’s one independent enterprise that has been bringing London beer lovers the delights of this relaxed approach to life for many years, and it’s called Lowlander.

The bar, Lowlander Grand Café to give its full title, is just off the beaten track on Drury Lane in Covent Garden and recently celebrated its fifth birthday by giving birth to a new branch in the City.

But how did this much-lauded concept make its way to these shores in the first place and what can beer connoisseurs expect to find?

In 2000 two ex-Whitbread lads, John Riddell and Aubrey Johnson, met while developing the once great Hogshead chain.

Following several ‘business’ trips to Belgium and Holland, the pair decided to set up on their own, believing London was ready for a more civilised sort of drinking with table service and high-quality beers – rather than the soulless chrome bars, enormous cattle barns with cheap lager or dingy boozers with warm bitter that populated the capital’s streets at the time.

The pair were determined to bring the fabulous, and laid back, Grand Café culture of Belgium and the Netherlands to the United Kingdom, with the personal touch, some theatre and, above all, damn good beers.

As someone who has frequented the cosy Drury Lane site for many years it is clear to me how the concept has succeeded – it doesn’t encourage you to drink for the sake of .....

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By Melissa Cole

Section : Spotlight

Page number : 24