A Belfast co-operative brewing company is to become the new operator of the John Hewitt pub on the city’s Donegal Street.
Boundary Brewing, which has been producing a range of beers since 2017, will run the bar on behalf of its owner, the Belfast Unemployed Resource Centre. It is a charity which offers support, education and facilities to the unemployed and other groups suffering from social and economic disadvantage
The organisation opened The John Hewitt in 1999 as a means to raise funds, naming the social enterprise pub after the late poet who opened the adjoining resource centre in 1985.
As well as brewing, Boundary has recently opened its own taproom next to its premises on Belfast’s Newtownards Road.
The company website said the team is excited to be given the chance to run one of the most iconic pubs in the city.
“The John Hewitt Pub, located in the Cathedral Quarter, right in the centre of Belfast, is one of the most famous pubs in the Country,” it said. “And from 2022, it has been entrusted to us.
“We are really humbled, and equally excited about such an amazing opportunity; to help build on the legacy of the Hewitt as a socially minded, community based, beer centric hub in Belfast, offering world class hospitality in one of the most iconic pubs in the city.”
The company’s website said it plans to add a food truck to the John Hewitt in the coming months.