The Doo’cot on Ferry Road has reopened recently under new management of local Robert Pearson and his partner Graeme Brown.
Robert explained how that came about. He is probably well known to many in North Edinburgh as the driving force behind the Community Shop in Muirhouse and the award-wining Tenants and Residents in Muirhouse group. He said : “As you know I’ve lived in North Edinburgh for a number of years now and have driven past this pub many times. It is an iconic building with many stories attached to it.
“With Graeme’s expertise in the licensed trade, we decided to approach the brewery to see if they were looking for live in managers. We grabbed the opportunity with both hands and applied to become the license holders.
“We opened on 3 August 2018, and of course when we opened we did not know what was going to happen as this pub had been closed for six months. But on our opening day there was a massive turnout of people who were glad to see their local open again.”
Now they have introduced a weekly Bonus Ball competition with a cash prize of £50 and you can also have a game of dominoes. They hope to introduce quiz nights soon too.
The Doo’cot is a very spacious building with three separate public areas, accessible toilets with baby changing facilities and a beer garden where they welcome dogs. The brewery spent £2.8 million on the refurbishment of the building in 2011 and it is a really pleasant space.
Robert continued : “It’s a fantastic building which is quite huge. It has three lounges, a restaurant which will open in September with new staff. We are also keen to get local community groups to come and use our lounges. One of these is children friendly up till 7pm, and of course the children are welcome in the restaurant too.”
The plan is to serve traditional pub food with pies, scampi and fish all featuring on our new menu. So watch out for their new menu on their Facebook page which they will serve all day from 12 noon to 8pm.
Graeme has been in the licensed trade since he was old enough to go into a pub. He rose to become manager of two of those, one in Glasgow and one in Livingston.
As live in managers the job is 24/7 for both Robert and Graeme who went to Tadcaster to Samuel Smith’s brewery for training ahead of opening the Doo’cot.
Samuel Smith’s Brewery own 200 pubs across the UK but only two in Scotland – the Doocot and the Cramond Inn. They have an ethos where the pub is quiet enough to talk with no loud music or TV in the background. They also encourage localness with the bar staff knowing their customers by name, but crucially they only allow their own crafted beer and other products to be sold in the pubs.
Their fruit beers are organic and brewed at All Saints Brewery Stamford with a steam engine providing the power to the restored 1825 malt mill and mash tun rakes.
So far Robert and Graeme have found that their best seller is the Taddy Lager – Taddy was Samuel Smith’s first registered trademark. The Double Four Lager is a close second and is a 4% ABV draft lager.
We will try to review the food at the Doo’cot when they get this set up.
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