People say it’s good to keep busy which is probably true, but there is being busy and there’s BUSY. Work at the Mawson can be contrary. Completely devoid of custom one minute, when the time truly drags and then manic with a tour group of 50 all demanding lattes, hungry diners wanting their meals served and our thirsty team of brewery workers needing to slake their thirsts before heading home for a quick kip (some start at 3am).
The pub was hired for a private birthday party – on the day of the Wales v England game – talk about poor scheduling. Our new Head Chef lasted a month and then moved on. And we are also without our leader Jill, who has jetted off to Thailand for some sorely needed R&R. So we’re busy.
On a sombre note, one of our favourite regular customers, Norman ‘Norm’ Cole passed away recently. No-one knows how long Norm had been coming to the Mawson but it could have been in excess of 10 years that he has been taking a taxi from Holland Park to the Salutation in Chiswick and then on to the Mawson to sit in his favourite chair and down a couple of cold ones. He loved to banter with everyone, letting a few choice words slip into the conversation and was always shuffling his feet when excited. The 2 footprints left infront of his chair will remain as an homage to Norm, a plaque will be placed above his chair alongside the one dedicated to his former drinking buddy Dave and table number 7 will be retired.
God bless you Norm, may you rest in peace. I hope that they serve Carling in Heaven.
I was also busy with a number of beer events this month. The New Zealand Beer Collective celebrated their 1st Anniversary at the wonderful Hop Burns and Black in East Dulwich. Great beer, great people. I was also invited to the Irish Embassy by Bord Bia, the Irish Food Board to celebrate small suppliers of whiskey, gin, poitin and craft beer. Slainte Mhaith!
Back at the Mawson a number of serious beer heads visited to take the brewery tour. Jim Shaw, owner of Soaring Wings in Springfield Nebraska was over on business. His vineyard has been operating for 15 years and he started brewing beer in 2011, building an impressive range of ales, porters, stouts and wit beers. Eric Ponce, Lead Brewer at Goose Island in Chicago was also in town to take the tour. Eric was over to deliver some tastings of his barrel-aged range and invited me along. I was gutted to miss out due to a work function on one day and the Stranglers in Brixton the other. I also had the good fortune to meet Silke van Ackeren, a beer sommelier from Stralsund in Northern Germany. Silke was also busy – gathering London craft beers for a tasting event at her brewery Stortebeker so I sent her off in the direction of East Dulwich to continue her shopping at Hop Burns and Black.
Finally, I had an uncredited role as an extra on a new tv series. Planet Food of Globe Trekker are producing a show about beer and chose to feature Bermondsey Beer Mile and Fuller’s. Filming was taking place within the Griffin Brewery and they decided that the presenter needed to be filmed ordering a beer within a proper pub – conveniently we are attached to the brewery. So the hands that are pulling the pints belong to yours truly, if the take doesn’t end up on the cutting room floor!
Beer Sommelier Kew 