Come And Join The (Tasting) Club

Having witnessed Digbeth’s gentrification first hand at Dead Wax Digbeth last time out I thought I would annoy Pete Allen a bit more by sneaking into another boozer before him find another new kid on the block.

Before Dave gets excited and starts singing boy band songs from the 90s, I have to tell him I’m looking out for pubs.

(is that a bar I spot?)

In fact, this one is so ‘new’ that it isn’t even on the whatpub website as yet. It’s been open less than a month and fits the bill perfectly in the Custard Factory.

Digbeth, or more specifically The Custard Factory and surrounding buildings are definitely the place to go at present in Brum.

(photo courtesy of http://www.Digbeth.com)

As one of my hairy-a***d mates, who is the pub expert in Brum said, it is the place to go if you want to do more than just drink.

Ghetto Golf, Fazeley Social and Digeth Dining Club are just a few of the examples of different drinking experiences and whilst they aren’t estate pubs, they are filling previously vacant buildings.

The days of the Industrial Revolution are long gone from Birmingham and Alfred Bird’s Custard Factory, which ran from1902 to the mid sixties, was dormant for around 30 years.

(funky)

It has subsequently been growing since the mid nineties and is really taking off now with even my mates, who usually hit the Lamp Tavern, Anchor, Spotted Dog or Big Bull’s Head, turning to Craft!

Anyway, in and amongst the units, there used to be a bottle shop/tap house called Clink Beer on Gibb Street. This has gone and been replaced by a crowdfunded new pub called 512 – Roberto’s Bar And Tasting Club B9 4AA.

Roberto (Ross) opened his doors on Monday December 9th and me and three of my mates popped in for a taster five days later and the man himself was working hard behind the bar.

It already had more people in it than I’d ever seen in its predecessor, which was a good sign and I had an excellent Belgian IPA, which hit the spot.

He’s using the upstairs room, which is good as it gives the place more space (think the Euston Tap size wise). The woman behind us said she didn’t like beer and despite a couple of tasters was still unconvinced but had honed in on the Gin, so Roberto is clearly covering all bases.

A modern, clean and friendly bar serving some lively beers, which aren’t always the norm even in a city the size of Brum.

It looks like Roberto’s Bar is here to stay and with the Digbeth renaissance continuing apace then there are likely to be many more places to drink in the next 12 months.