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SWNS
  • 10/05/2025
Hazel and Andrew Smith have converted the front room of their Upton-upon-Severn home into one of the UK’s smallest pubs.

The pair spent £50,000 turning the 11ft x 13ft space into J Maverick & Co, which holds just 20 people.

Hazel, 53, quit her job to run the micro-pub full time, serving craft ales and ciders from local breweries.

Housed in an 18th-century building, the cosy taproom features one table, a window seat, and a Victorian bookshelf-turned-fridge.

“It’s genuinely like having people into your house,” said Hazel.

Category

😹
Fun
Transcript
00:00I'm Hazel Smith, landlady of J Maverick Craft Ales and Ciders in Upton Pond Severn.
00:07Bought this place in 2022 with the idea of building a tap room and very small B&B.
00:15Absolutely loved the building and it was ideal for doing what we wanted to do because it has a great cellar,
00:21a couple of really beautiful high ceiling bedrooms and this room which was just ideal for making a tap room.
00:30A lot of craft ale bars look quite industrial by definition and we wanted this place because the building was built in 1780.
00:41It just wouldn't have lent itself to that so we wanted this to look like a Victorian pub essentially.
00:48So things like the mirrors above the bar, the tiles, the bookshelf where we knew the cans would look absolutely fantastic
00:56and Prudence, the deer above the door, all of those things just give it that quirky Victorian cosy feeling.
01:07And we love that about this place that it's just the colours of it and it's an interesting place to have a drink.
01:15We're not the smallest in the UK, there are a few smaller but we're the smallest tap room in the Midlands
01:22because it literally is the front room of our house with a bar and the bookshelves and the fridges etc.
01:30So yeah, smallest tap room in the Midlands.
01:34So we stock beers from a wide range of breweries and the shelves go from bitters, dark ales, stouts, imperial stouts
01:45from all over the UK and we have some in at the moment from the US and Sweden.
01:51From pale ales and lagers in the middle over to sour beers and ciders.
01:56And we try to stock beers that are unusual or that you can't really get anywhere else in the area.
02:04We also have a fairly extensive wine list because we realised quite early on that there's a massive demand for high quality wines.
02:14We love the breweries that we deal with, some of them are local like Budely Brewery, some of them like Omnipolo are in Sweden.
02:25And then you've got Vault City in Edinburgh, they do fantastic sour beers, really unusual.
02:30So we just love dealing with independent breweries that produce really high quality beer.
02:37And I think our customers love that as well.
02:40So we just love this day and give it a big surprise.
02:44We wish we love it too.
02:47So, let's go.
02:48So, let's go.
02:50So, let's go.
02:51So, let's go.
02:52We'll go.
02:53Let's go.
02:54Let's go.
02:55Let's go.
02:56Now what you do, let's go.
02:57Let's go.
02:58Let's go.
02:59Now, let's go.
03:01I'll go.
03:02No.
03:03So, let's go.
03:05So, let's go.

DIY

2:41
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