In recent times, the town of Eccles has seen a resurgence of its high street and the area surrounding it. This has been helped in no small part by the opening of a number of small businesses that have been popping up and providing the town with a breath of fresh air that has been sorely needed for some time now.

One of these small businesses that have contributed to the revival of Eccles is the craft beer shop located on Church Street, The Northern Type. Opened by David Lewis and his wife Jennie roughly a year ago, the shop/bar is seen as a great location and source of local craft beers that are seldom seen in more mainstreams off-licenses and supermarkets.

 

During our interview with David, he reiterated the importance of local craft beers and how he realized there was a ‘gap in the market’ for such products, seeing as ‘around 10-12 years ago, the craft beer industry really started to gain momentum’ which was resulting in an increase in the choice of beers people were able to buy. Having been born in a pub himself and worked in various other pubs as well as his wife, David has been able to implement certain traits from previous areas of employment when starting his own independent business.

 

“I think the concept of what we’ve done since when we first started was certainly new to the area, a one-stop shop where you can do your beer shop, then go. There’s going to be aspects that you take from other places. Being a beer lover, you go to different places, you try different beers and if there’s a certain type of beer you don’t sell you think ‘we’ll try that, some of our customers might like it’. So, you take the good bits from other places I suppose and encourage yourself to do better”.

The bar/shop David has established has largely aimed to stock in more, niche and less well-known craft beers that have been manufactured by local breweries to Salford, such as Northern Monk, Cloudwater and Tiny Rebel. David name-dropped a particular craft beer names Pump Up The Jam, by Tiny Rebel; which is jam donut pale ale and he claimed it was the kind of beer that would ‘blow your mind’.

Lewis himself said that ‘we will go out of our way, as long as the product isn’t mainstream’. A significant factor behind this is that selling products that might be considered more mainstreams are likely to get picked up by a supermarket.

‘‘They might start selling it at a cheaper rate and that is a level we can’t compete with.’

David was also sure to note that the business has had a strong connection with a good core of regulars since opening just over a year ago. He went on to tell the story of one regular by the name of Pablo who he claims suddenly stopped coming in at one point, only to discover that he had diabetes and was unable to drink anymore. To rectify the situation, David went out of his way to begin stocking non-alcoholic beer in.

‘We got in touch with Thornbridge brewery and 10 minutes later he was here and were having a nice catch up with him’.

Stories like this have reiterated a sense of community in the area and how they have gone out of their way to accommodate their loyal customers.

Another aspect that David claims underlines this is the fact that the abundance of small businesses in the area has helped them all benefit from each other. A few of the other small businesses were mentioned, such as the cocktail bar Malaga Drift, where David claimed they would go to on a Friday night, as he believed that it ‘goes back to supporting independent businesses, which is something we really believe in’.

Things like this has shown that Eccles is an area that is now beginning to from independent businesses such as David’s bar and how they are all able to benefit from each other.

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