Monday night in Staple Hill was never like this. When we arrived at the newly-opened Forge & Fern at 7pm, the place was jumping - there must have been at least 100 people there eating, drinking and clearly have a great time.
I'm told the first weekend at this major new opening was fully booked and here we were on Monday evening struggling to get a table. It never used to be like this when the building was the Red Lion - by the end of the old pub's life, this end of Broad Street was so dead you would be tripping over tumbleweed.
The 19th-century pub has undergone the sort of extensive makeover that would even bring a tear to the eye of DIY SOS presenter Nick Knowles. It’s a remarkable transformation.
