Dray cats strut
Two Fat Cats – one a long time real ale mecca, the other CAMRA’s champion pub of Great Britain and the only pub to win the honour twice. Nigel Huddleston reports from Sheffield, Rob Allanson from Norwich
The night when the Fat Cat first opened its doors in 1981 there were people queuing outside to get in.
The Sheffield public had been fed a diet of keg Stone’s and Ward’s by two of what were then the big six brewers and the notion of a pub dedicated to serving quality cask beer was as revolutionary at the time as the cheap bus fares policy operated by a pre- New Labour David Blunkett.
It was the first pub in the city to have a no smoking room and owner David Wickett had to buy a Ford Transit to collect beers from microbreweries that didn’t have the access to wide geographical markets as they do now.
Even the legendary Yorkshire brewer Timothy Taylor refused to deliver stocks of its Landlord ale until Wickett sourced seven barrels by a circuitous route and sold them in four days.
Almost a quarter of a century down the line, and plenty of other brewers and beer drinkers have become convinced of the Fat Cat’s real ale credentials.
In that time, some 5,500 cask beers have passed through the pub’s pumps and it’s become a pilgrimage destination for beer lovers from across the world.
Norwich licensee Colin Keatley was so impressed, according to Wickett, he asked permission to borrow the Fat Cat name in homage to the Sheffield pub. The Norwich Fat Cat has done its counterpart proud, twice winning the Campaign for Real Ale’s pub of the year.
“When Sheffield United played in Norwich he drove us to the match and bought us lunch,” says David Wickett.
As part of the package, the N.....
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By Nigel Huddleston
Section : Spotlight
Page number : 52
