The Organ Grinder is coming to canning circus!
You may well have heard the rumours about Blue Monkey opening a pub in Canning Circus, and we can officially reveal that they are true. The Red Lion at the bottom of Alfreton Road (opposite the Running Horse) has been bought by the brewery. They have renamed it ‘The Organ Grinder’, and are investing a significant amount of money to totally renovate it and turn it into a Mecca for real ale fans. The new pub looks set to build on Canning Circus’s cracking reputation for real ale, and should be a real boost to the area.
Blue Monkey’s John Hickling said “We’re currently doing all the structural stuff that’s been neglected for years, such as re-tiling the roof, sorting out the electrics and installing a new heating system. Next we’ll be moving on to the décor, which needs a lot of work. We’re aiming for a proper ‘pub like’ feel to the interior, but with a modern twist - anyone who knows how grotty the pub was when it closed six months ago will be in for a pleasant surprise! I love real fires in pubs, so we’ve opened out the old fireplace and fitted a lovely cast iron log burner, which will be roaring away come Autumn.”
“I’d like to think that Blue Monkey has a great reputation for brewing consistently good beer, and I’m absolutely determined that we’ll carry that forward into selling and serving beer in a first class pub. So the first job was to rip out all the beer dispense equipment which was filthy, and start from scratch. Unusually, we’re paying for all the cellar and dispense equipment ourselves, so we’ll not be in any way tied to a particular brewery or distributor – it will be one of only a few genuinely free houses out there. The plan is have the best range of ales in Nottingham, kept and served in perfect conditions. I think we’ll launch with 8 ale handpulls, maybe 10 if I’m confident that the turnover of beer can justify it. The pub has a massive cellar, cut deep into the sandstone, so it’s perfect for a real ale pub – having plenty of storage space we’ll be able to make sure the beer is really well conditioned before it goes on sale. Obviously we’ll have plenty of Blue Monkey beers on, but also about half the pumps will be given over to other great breweries from near and far. I want to make the ale range really distinctive, so we’ll be going to quite some effort to bring in beers that you won’t find anywhere else in Nottingham. As for other drinks, we’re still finalising the details but we’ll definitely have several unusual real ciders and perries available, a distinctive range of keg beers that you’ll not find elsewhere and a quality wine range available for the non ale drinkers.”
The Organ Grinder will open in late June - watch this space!