The Dale Street area of Liverpool is often referred to by some as ‘Beer Street’ given its generous number of pubs lining the road from near to St John’s Gardens down to Water Street, many of the roads, side streets and alleys branching from one of the original Seven Streets themselves are home to bars and pubs providing some unusual and distinctive drinking holes.  Many of these places started life as coaching houses, inns and taverns set up for the large numbers of travellers and traders visiting Liverpool and some in the area have stood the test of time.
 
For the Beer Quarter idea, some of the local landlords of establishments in this area have decided to come together to draw on the Liverpudlian sense of community to form the ‘Beer Quarter’ and host a weekend of events to try and bring attention and excitement to the area of the city again.

The Denbigh Castle’s Fiona Hornsby stated: “We’re acutely aware of the dismal headlines about 70% of pubs potentially failing over this Winter.  Our ambition and focus is to retain all of our pubs in this great city of ours and especially in this area, because, what would Liverpool be like without them? It’s almost unimaginable looking back over our last three decades of experience in the industry.”

The Beer Quarter celebrations will be taking place over the weekend of the 23rd to the 25th September with all the participating pubs running a series of events over the course of the weekend including beer launches, live music, tastings, comedy, pub games, meet the brewer events and special food offerings amongst other festivities. ​

The Caledonia has had some battles along with way to ensure it continues to operate; following a massive redevelopment project by Liverpool University to replenish the Philharmonic Halls buildings which surround the Caledonia (or ‘The Cali’ as it is affectionally known locally), the pub’s existence was under threat back in 2013 thanks to some dealings by the PubCo at the time, Admiral Taverns.  Due to plenty of fight and local support, Laura, Hannah and the team are continuing to do their thing and keep one of the cult pub favourites of Liverpool ticking.
 
The team behind the Caledonia have recently had a bit of a revamp in regard their menus and also the beer that they stock.  For the evening we attended, the pub had chosen to undertake a Tap Takeover with the help of Carnival Brewing.  There were three different cask (the Skosh Lime Leaf Pale, Ribbons of Distinction Idaho 7 and Carmen) beers pouring, along with another three keg and plenty of back up choices stored in the fridges behind the bar.  The revamp of the menu is to introduce a broader appeal, with ‘burgers’, nachos, fried chicken (seitan in the case of the fried chicken burgers we tried) and a variety of sides, light bites and other dishes sitting on the menu. 

Laura King, the licensee, offered “We took the chance on going vegan with our menu in 2017 and it has been a great success, enabling us to combine elements of a traditional community pub with something unique.  We are now looking to build on the existing menu while reaching out into creative world inspired food and vegetable focused options.  I can’t wait to try it all myself!”.
 
The food and beer were both great; unfussy casual eating and great local beer brewed in the shadow of the Royal Liver Building.  Hopefully we shall see more of what the Caledonia offer with their beer range going forward, as having four rotating cask lines and three kegs which aren’t tied is a healthy level for small but perfectly formed pub.

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The Caledonia
22 Caledonia Street, Liverpool. L7 7DX
Web: www.thecaledonialiverpool.com/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/caledonialiverpool
Twitter: twitter.com/thecaledonia
Instagram: www.instagram.com/thecaledonia/