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Sort file:- Tunbridge Wells, March, 2021.

Page Updated:- Sunday, 07 March, 2021.

PUB LIST PUBLIC HOUSES Paul Skelton

Earliest 2013

Fuggles Beer Cafe

Open 2020+

28 Grosvenor Road

Royal Tunbridge Wells

01892 457739

http://www.fugglesbeercafe.co.uk/tunbridgewells

https://whatpub.com/fuggles-beer-cafe

Fuggles Beer Cafe 2016

Above photo, 2016.

 

Created in 2013 with the aim of specialising in the best of British, Belgian & Dutch craft brews. They also do a range of Gin & Whisky and have 6 cask ales, ciders and over 100 speciality rare bottles, so their web site said in 2016.

 

From the https://www.kentonline.co.uk By Natalie Tipping, 24 May 2017.

Tunbridge Wells Fuggles Beer Cafe named pub of the year by West Kent Camra.

After two years of coming second, a beer cafe is raising a celebratory toast after being named pub of the year by the West Kent branch of the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra).

The branch hands out various awards once a year, with scoring based on beer quality, atmosphere, service, community involvement and helping to promote beer and pubs.

Fuggles Beer Cafe in Tunbridge Wells was officially crowned at a presentation last week.

Fuggles Beer cafe award 2017

The Fuggles team celebrates its win.

The Grosvenor Road business has previously been the runner up for this award in both 2015 and 2016, and owner Alex Greig was thrilled to have finally made it to the top spot.

"It's great to win pub of the year for West Kent. It's so good to be recognised for all the hard work that goes into running the pub, especially for the team that help me do, it'd be impossible without them and they really make the place what it is" he said.

Runners up included The Windmill in Sevenoaks and The Halfway House in Brenchley.

The award for most improved pub went to The Toad Rock Retreat in Rusthall, which has recently been taken over by new management.

Craig Beeson, branch chairman, said: "All the pubs included in this competition achieve a level of excellence to be commended, with the top three in this year's competition chopping and changing right up to the last scores being computed, and as such it was impossible to predict.

"Alex has, with Fuggles Beer Cafe, helped to transform the beer scene in our area, particularly in Tunbridge Wells, serving quality cask beer and other craft ales, extending the range of products available to the public, whilst encouraging competition by setting new standards for the industry in respect of customer service and staff knowledge, and thoroughly deserves the recognition this award will bring."

Fuggles will now go through to the regional Camra awards.

 

From the https://www.telegraph.co.uk  By Sophie Atherton, 16 February 2018.

Fuggles Beer Café, 
Royal Tunbridge Wells, pub review: a pleasing hybrid of coffee shop and pub.

Fuggles Beer Cafe inside 2018

Fuggles provides a contemporary answer to the pub-versus-café conundrum - the good news being you can have both CREDIT: G W FISHER.

The rise of café culture is said to be threatening the Great British pub. We're now an island flooded with chain coffee shops and it seems people prefer them to the boozer.

In Royal Tunbridge Wells though, this isn't being taken lying down. A town of two centres, one historic and the other modern, Fuggles provides a contemporary answer to the pub versus café conundrum. The good news being you can have both.

In common with pubs there is beer; a wide and diverse selection clearly curated by someone knowledgeable, who has also taken the trouble ensure the staff have that knowledge too. There is also wine and spirits as well as coffee and food. All presented in a pleasing hybrid of coffee shop and pub, appropriately described as a beer café.

Full length windows at the front give the place an approachable air, while a long, narrow room means the back of the joint is darker and more secluded for pub fans who prefer it that way.

Fuggles serves two beer-themed toasted cheese sandwiches (from £5), as well as more on trend dishes.

I start my visit on the safe side – not with coffee as I'm firmly in the pub as boozer camp – but with some Tonbridge Brewery Coppernob (3.8%), a traditional cask best bitter brewed nearby and just £3.60 a pint. Later I treat myself to the richer, darker and much stronger Double Stout (9%) from Time & Tide, £2.20 for a third of a pint, which could easily stand in for dessert.

Staying with the café culture theme, I once managed to stay up all night in Paris because the café I was in served croque monsieur at all hours. When I felt myself flagging at 3am toast and cheese brought me round. Its opening hours aren’t so continental, but Fuggles serves two beer-themed toasted cheese sandwiches (from £5), as well as more on trend dishes featuring aubergine, chick peas and edamame beans. Yet another example of its pub-café combination pedigree.

Lucky east Kent locals are also blessed with a second incarnation of the Fuggles brand a few miles up the road in Tonbridge. If the original is anything to go by, patrons will depart satisfied and far from disgusted.

 

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GREGG Alex 2013+

 

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