Written by Andy, Tim & Contributors

Stories Behind the Stats: The Sutton Arms

The Sutton Arms, London

The Sutton Arms is a unique gem of a pub with a wonderful mix of customers, largely due to the range of beers available. The team run a tight shop with their cask ales always in tip top condition alongside a permanent Suspended in... keg line and regular offerings from the likes of Vibrant Forest, Kernel, Northern Monk and other stalwarts of the scene.

They've always been huge proponents of Siren, including hosting a Maiden 2018 launch night and once this all happened Jack (GM) was one of the first people to tell us that he’ll sort out invoices ASAP... And he was true to his word.

We'll always be huge fans of theirs. 

We can't talk about The Sutton Arms without mentioning Manny and Ludo, their pub dogs. Ludo is the brother of, and Manny the Uncle of our man Peter's dog Peanut, so The Sutton Arms are very much family! Check out the dogs here: 

Manny & Ludo - https://www.instagram.com/thepubdogs/
Peanut - https://www.instagram.com/peanut_pupper_jelly_time/

Tell us about who you are?

The Sutton Arms is an independent pub right in the heart of Clerkenwell and the City, close to Barbican, Farringdon and Old Street Tube Station. There might still be a couple of macro beers being served but its become far more than that with 7 keg and 3 cask lines being poured from Independent breweries around the UK and more.

How has the pandemic affected your business?

It's been strange seeing this usual buzzing area become a ghost town. Seeing the streets empty at 4:30pm on a Friday afternoon is just bizarre. Luckily we only have a small team here as we’re a tiny pub, but they have been furloughed. They will have jobs to come back to which is great and I consider us to be very fortunate. I look at and I hear stories about some pubs and breweries not being given grants and letting people go and it's horrible, I never expected to see anything like this in my lifetime. I just hope we all continue to stick together and help each other as much as possible.

What had to change?

I was preparing to go on my honeymoon with my wife but I didn’t expect things to turn sour so quickly. Our honeymoon got cancelled and I was faced with a cellar full of beer. I had a bit of a panic and had to come up with a plan. After a few weeks of sitting around doing nothing but drink and eat I decided the best thing to do was open as a takeaway. We’ve got all this delicious beer in the cellar and I don’t know when we’ll reopen so lets get it into people's homes. Doing that means I can keep a few quid coming in, I can pay breweries and wholesalers. I’ve never known anything other than how to run a pub, so becoming a takeaway was a bit of an eye opener and I've gained so much respect for all these little indie bottle shops. We don’t have anything like that round here so I’m definitely not stealing anyones customers, which is great too.

What's inspired you to keep going?

Genuinely the breweries. If we don’t have the breweries we have no beer. It's pretty simple. And if I can help in any way then I'll do it and I hope I can do it right and put a smile on someone's face. I was really nervous when I was putting this all together. I started with 100 cartons on a Wednesday and by Saturday I was on my second cask of Five Points Best and my second keg of Bohem Amos. Chatting to people about this has been great and the support, not just to us but ordering online from breweries has been phenomenal.

What are you most looking forward to after all this over?

A few things. Firstly seeing regulars. I miss some of our customers a huge amount. Secondly, weirdly, having a pint in a pub which isn’t my own. I live and work here, I need a pint somewhere else. That’ll most likely be a pint at The Old Fountain and I can’t wait to get back to places like The Queens Head near Kings Cross. Both proper boozers but with amazing beer selections. I’m also going to check out more places I haven’t visited. Like The Dodo in Hanwell. That place blows my mind. I see what they’re doing on Twitter and Instagram and every time it blows my mind. I’d love to move out of London and have something like that.

See the rest of the Stories Behind The Stats here: sirencraftbrew.com/stories

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