Eric and Patrick Mills are in the process of revitalising Liverpool's smallest pub.
The father and son team, from Huyton, have run micropub Cask, in Stoneycroft, with the help of friend Jay Sankey, since 2020. Their success - developing a committed band of regulars and gaining a number of awards nods - led them to look for a second venue.
And, after some searching, that second venue became Cask Coach House, tucked away on Maryland Street in the city centre. Now, they are planning on bringing their micropub expertise to what is widely acknowledged as Liverpool's smallest pub.
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The Coach House used to be run by the team behind The Angus on Dale Street. Before then, it had been known as Hard Times & Misery and then Dickens & King.
Cask acquired the pub earlier this year and opened it last month under their branding. It has retained the atmosphere of its previous iteration and it is, not surprisingly, rather intimate.
Downstairs, only three stools sit in front of the bar, which offers cask and keg beers. A well-stocked fridge is complemented by a number of spirits behind the bar.
Other seating options are limited by the very nature of it being the city's smallest pub. A table outside catches the afternoon sun, while the stairs lead to a compact room of bench seats and tables. It is cosy, yet bright, and is conducive to chats developing between groups.
As they prepared for a day behind the bar, Patrick and dad Eric spoke about Cask Coach House's first month and what they want to achieve with the pub.
Patrick told the ECHO: "The start has brought its own challenges. Being the smallest site in the city has presented its own issues.
"We thought we were used to small spaces with having Cask, but this is another level. We thought we'd be able to adapt to another small space pretty well, but it's challenging to say the least."
Familiar faces have followed the Cask team into town with many regulars from their Queens Drive pub trying out the new venue. Joining them are Hard Times & Misery customers from back in the day.
Eric said: "We've had a fair few who we would class as our Stoneycroft regulars pop in and we've turned a few of them into regulars here. There are one or two who come to town on a fairly regular basis, so they've made a beeline and made a point of coming to support us which we're very grateful for."
Cask Coach House has also found itself in the middle of pub crawls, as people make their way through and out of the Georgian Quarter. It has provided welcome business for Patrick who is taking the lead on the city centre venue while Eric keeps his focus on Stoneycroft.
Patrick said: "A lot of people look to do a crawl when they're in the city. I didn't get my head around that at first - I thought I was doing something wrong, because we'd be chocker and then you'd see people fizzle out.
"We're on a great route for a pub crawl. You've got the Blackburne at the top, you can hit the Belvedere on the way down, you can come through and hit the Pen Factory and plenty of other pubs. As we tail to the bottom of the Georgian Quarter, it's on a fantastic pub crawl.
"We're trying to open up to the student demographic as well with uni buildings and accommodation nearby. We have got a drinks list specifically for students and it's an insane price point really, for what we are and where we are - a G&T is £3.50 with us, so you can't go anywhere else in the city and get what we're trying to offer people."
Pricing is a key point for Patrick and Eric. Before they opened the Coach House, they said they would bring their Stoneycroft prices into the city centre. In a world where most pints in town cost upwards of £5, that approach appears to have gone down well.
Patrick said: "We do Cask Club on a Tuesday, so we've got £3 for a cask ale. Through the week, it's £3.90 and we do a £4 lager.
"We are extremely competitive, but at the same time, we try and do our best to work as closely with the breweries as possible so that we can guarantee the end product to the customer is the best price it can be.
"It's very easy to come into town with a business model and inflate the prices accordingly. But there's no call for that with what we do - we don't need to do it.
"We did £3 lagers on Father's Day and there was a party of about 16 to 18 people and they genuinely didn't believe the price when we told them. That kept them here - they were on a crawl themselves, but they stayed for a second pint. They asked me if I'd done something wrong with the price.
"It's that ideology that we're looking to capture. You don't have to spend an arm and a leg to come and enjoy a really nice pub in the centre of town."
After a hectic opening month, Patrick is now working to put more of the Cask stamp on his new pub. Tinkers with the interior are coming as he hopes to bring the same look and ethos - a community-driven local pub - into his city centre venue.
He said: "We are getting people popping their heads in, telling us about when it was Hard Times & Misery and then when it was Dickens & King. Then there's a few who reminisce about how it has changed so much upstairs and other changes.
"It's nice to hear how the place has evolved over time because it helps us build a bit more character into what we do. That's the main reason why people drink in establishments like this - it's the character and feel. You don't get that from a large chain pub.
"We also want to be a safe space for students coming to Liverpool, where they can find the establishments where they can go out and drink in a comfortable space. It is somewhere where people can find their feet with drinking in Liverpool.
"Everyone speaks to everyone in here, you can get to know people. It's a very intimate space, somewhere where you can find a friend - that's what we're trying to bring back."
As he works to build that with his new pub, Patrick is grateful that he and Eric have been able to set up a second venue - a longstanding ambition, but one which was halted by the economic climate of recent years. Now that the Coach House is part of the Cask family, Patrick is not looking back.
He said: "It's the kick start of what I've been trying to get us all the way through covid. The plan was to move forward with more sites sooner than we did, but that wasn't possible.
"The knock on of covid has really put the brakes on a lot of restaurants, bars and the entire industry. It's put a real choke hold on it. We are trying to carefully move it and find new sites where what we can offer will work and can be appreciated by the community that we're building.
"That's all we're doing and we appreciate the support an awful lot - probably more than people understand, especially being the family business that we are. We try our best to get to know absolutely everybody who comes through the door. That's what we want to do."
Cask Coach House is found at 2B Maryland Street in the city centre. It is open from 3pm seven days a week.
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