So here we are in a new year and I’m oficially “on holiday” in Hanwell. Who needs a new year trip to Sri Lanka? Well, me, as evidently I’m clearly rubbish at switching off from work mode! To be fair, on day one of my “holiday” I did throw myself into out of office mode. I had a relaxing facial and was so in the zen zone that I didn’t even realise my bag and wallet had been lifted from my posession in the pit of hell that is Lidl! Lesson learnt, I’m just not built for the chilled life!
Massive giant thank you to everyone who came down to the launch of The Dodo beer, our collaboration brew with Hanwell’s finest craft beer brewery, Weird Beard Brew Co!
The first cask went by 6.45pm and the second cask went by 8pm! I thought 2 casks would last me the entire weekend, not just 4 hours on a Thursday night! Well done Hanwell Massive! Really glad you have been enjoying the beer!
Yo! It’s a dream come true! The Dodo Micropub and Weird Beard Brew Co have made a collaboration beer together!! The Dodo beer is coming soon so put Thursday 13th September in your diaries for our launch event! We’re open in the evening from 5pm – 10pm so get in early to grab a seat.
We will be pouring The Dodo beer (cask available exclusively at The Dodo!!) plus having a Weird Beard Tap Takeover party! As you lot know, there ain’t no party like a Weird Beard party!
Yes, the collaboration beer is actually called The Dodo! So on brand for both beer businesses because in-keeping with Weird Beard’s musically named beers, it is in fact a song title of the punk rock band called Bad Religion. Weird Beard Bryan has in fact seen them live in the states. The lyrics are pretty apt for me too considering I left the corporate world to go and work in a much nicer environment full of happy, less evil beer people.
Among the commuters, dwarfed by the skyscrapers
I watch the countless millions fighting for space
See hateful, petty acts, disjointed images,
And can’t believe that I’m one of the same race.
We’re all just struggling to cope
And we come to a fork in the road
As we watch our foundations erode
There’s only one direction to go.
It’s the way of the dodo
Such a noble destiny…
The Dodo, Bad Religion.
The Dodo collaboration beer is a juicy DDH oatmeal pale ale at 4.6% and joining The Dodo on the night we also have Sour Slave, Black Perle, Weird Wired and Hit The Lights.
See you then! It’s going to be a lot of fun!
A few snaps from the brew day for you! Even fulfilled my dream of climbing into a mash tun!
No idea why it’s taken me quite so long to cement my double award winning in a blog post! If you don’t know (as I’m clearly not very good at telling people about it) earlier this year, on top of winning Ealing Pub of the Year 2018, The Dodo Micropub was also crowned West Middlesex Pub of the Year 2018! WOOO HOOOOOO!!!!
The awards presentation took place in April where the (then) Mayor of Ealing, Simon Woodroffe and Roy Tunstall, Chairman for the West Middlsex Branch of CAMRA, presented me with my two awards!
Here’s a photo re-cap for those that weren’t there on the night. It was a jolly good night of celebrations and you really did miss a grand old party!
To win the borough and overall region pub of the year awards having only launched the business under 14 months previous is really bloody mind blowing! Especially as I tend to live day by day always feeling like I don’t really know what I’m doing as a business owner!
It was in fact a nice conversation with patrons Jan & Tom that brought it all home shortly after the West Middlesex Pub of the Year win was announced. Jan was so proud of my achievement on my behalf that she welled up thinking about how far I’ve come in such a short space of time!!! This actually happened and I was really blown away and in turn forced to take in the winning “properly”. Thanks Jan for providing all the feels and for making me fix up and accept that hard work really does pay off!
This may never come around again for The Dodo Micropub, so for now, just let me bask in the glory and the kindness of those who were good enough to vote for a new and not a typically CAMRA-esque pub.
It’s not just Jan and Tom who deserve a shout out as everyone has been so bloody lovely!! My fab regular faces and people completely new to The Dodo have all been so kind with their words (at least to my face). So thank you from the bottom of my heart!!
It really does remind me of exactly why I set up a micropub in the first place and exactly why I have the best job in the world!!
I printed a little message in this year’s Ealing Beer Festival programme for you all to see but in case you missed it, simply and sincerely …
It really does mean so much!!
And we bloody well did it together!!
Team Dodo & the Hanwell Massive!!
Lucy
xx
Our stand on sexism in the beer and hospitality industry. It's not acceptable! As a female owned business it’s sad to be sharing some real life actual examples of sexism that absolutely should not have occurred down The Dodo!
I was once called “The Boozy Beyonce of Hanwell”. I LOVE Beyonce a lot so I’m channeling my inner Sasha Fierce and writing this post because it’s important to speak up and stand up for what you believe in.
Exciting news alert! The Dodo Micropub has been crowned Ealing Pub of the Year 2018! Wow!
I was completely shocked to discover the news but obviously over the moon and giddy with excitement! It’s been a fun week of some really lovely messages, congratulations and good old celebratory vibes down The Dodo. Thank you to everyone who has said nice things and joined in with the general excitement.
It was a very close call, I won by 31 votes and the Owl & Pussycat came 2nd with 30 votes!! Yikes! Can you believe it was that tight?!? I have of course loved everyone claiming it was their vote that won it! Ha ha!
I for one am really glad it was this close. It’s nice to see the Ealing Micropub Mile getting the recognition it deserves collectively and I’m also really bloody chuffed that the top 3 Ealing Pubs were all independent businesses (2 of which are female owned and run – yes girl power!).
What is also really great to see is that the other borough winners (Hillingdon Pub of the Year – Hop & Vine and Harrow Pub of the Year – Beer Asylum) are both new, independent beer businesses, like myself, each doing their own kick-ass, highly admirable thing! What an honour to be winners alongside these guys and I’m very sure we’ll all be partying hard again at this year’s Ealing Beer Festival in celebration!
Hillingdon, Harrow and Ealing Pub of the Year 2018! Hop & Vine, Beer Asylum & The Dodo Micropub!
Thank you to everyone who voted for The Dodo Micropub! You guys absolutely bloomin’ ROCK!!!
The presentation party has been set for Thursday 5th April folks, more details to follow but save the date for now!
OMG! I have been shortlisted for The Natwest Great British Entrepreneur Awards in the High Street Entrepreneur of the Year category!! Somehow out of the 1,000 plus businesses that entered these awards, I’m one of six in the London region! Wahhhhhhh!
Setting the scene, it was a quiet Friday afternoon in The Dodo (literally no-one in for the first 2 hours of trading) when I received the news. It had been one of those weeks and some incorrect print outs of my menus was almost pushing me to the edge (when tiredness affects your usual level of resilience).
Ping – “Congratulations are in order”. A few moments pass, I scan the email again and then standing alone in the pub, I repeatedly use the F word over and over again in shock (thank goodness we were dead so nobody could hear my foul but excitable language)!
This happened a couple of weeks ago now and since then I’ve been doing cartwheels of excitement! In 2014, The Natwest Great British Entrepreneur of the Year was James Watt, Mr bloody Brew Dog himself!! Even to be vaguely within the same circles as him is a complete honour!! It’s ridiculous!! Reality check – I’m obviously nowhere near the same circles *yet* but I did see him do a talk once and he gave me / everyone a free beer. Does that count?
It’s been a crazy but satisfying 7 and a bit months and this bit of news is most definitely THE highlight! Something I was not expecting at all!
Running your own business is a constant strive for success. With the smooth comes the rough. Sometimes my mind and body are hurting when I get to the end of the week. The adjust to a hospitality lifestyle has sometimes been a stretch. I once found myself on the floor behind the till needing a time out with the dog as it all got a bit much and on the rare occasions I may get some casual sexisim / racism in the pub (“you don’t look like you drink beer so it’s obviously your partner who selects them / “you don’t often see Asians in a pub” – two of my favourite examples) my heart sinks a little (it’s 2017 after all) and I have to dig deep to keep calm and respond politely. I’ve never had to deal with this dynamic before in an office environment!
However the lows are minimal and ALWAYS massively over shadowed by the highs! MASSIVELY! The number of brilliant people I get to meet on a regular basis is heart warming and I can’t really explain why serving beer is a million times better than working in marketing!
Seeing the community spirit alive and kicking down The Dodo brings me (and others) a lot of joy. From the little moments like Alan (70 ish) and baby Max (10 months ish) laughing with pure elation in each others faces while Yas (20 ish) and I (30 ish) looked at each other thinking ‘this is the best thing we’ve ever witnessed’ to people telling me that The Dodo has changed the way they feel about where they live, it’s all completely magical! Cheesy but true.
When I first got going I was worried that the creation of a little micropub community wouldn’t happen naturally in London but I was quickly proved wrong because of everyone who’s embraced the concept and thrown themselves into this odd little space in Hanwell where you actually talk to people you don’t know!
A genuine and heartfelt thousand thank yous to everyone who’s ever popped in and helped us spread the message about the new micropub in town. I still get excited when someone not particularly local comes in as they’ve heard good things and wanted to check us out! There would be no shortlist for The Great British Entrepreneur Awards and no success story without the wider “Team Dodo” – you lovely lot who have supported in some way shape or form and turned up for a drink or two.
If a miracle occurs and I win the award there will be the biggest party down The Dodo to show my appreciation!!
