This is a great neighbourhood brewery and so much more, its infectious enthusiasm extending to the full-service cocktail bar and the kitchen pumping out winning food that’s no afterthought.
Molly Rose gets it. If you’re looking for a blueprint of how you could take a great local brewery and turn it into something of national interest, this could be it. Back in 2019, the beer was ambitious, but the taproom was pretty low-key, very much feeling like the bar, tables and chairs were a basic set-up secondary to the business of brewing beer. And that was no bad thing. It had a good vibe, great service, tasty jaffles – all good times.
But in 2023 they really stepped things up, expanding into the space next door, not just with a more attractive and finished space to drink, but with something really special. The beer garden is a pretty thing, with drinkers and their doggos doing their thing under the blessing of the huge (and hugely fruitful) old lemon tree you can see from the street. Inside there’s a full-service cocktail bar that glows with a fit-out from designers Mitchell & Eades, as well as a kitchen pumping out way more than toasties. And the best part? They’ve pulled all this off without losing that Wellington Street neighbourhood feeling that made the place such a hit in the first place. No small feat.
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Maybe it’s just the presence of that spectacular tree out the front, but it’s hard not to consider even a little splash of When Life Gives You Lemons, Molly Rose’s signature dry-hopped, lemon-accented farmhouse ale. If you’re into hops, the Skylight IPA or the Little Hazy pale might be your jam, otherwise Lager #3 gives you what you want (still hoppy, too) in a more straight-down-the-barrel way. The brew team loves an experiment, so there’s a lot going on here in the limited-release/collab department. Skins from nebbiolo grapes, yellow peaches, lemon iced-tea radlers, Italian pilsners, upcycling from Marionette liqueur production, or a bangin’ 0.05 per cent citrus IPA – the sky’s the limit. And that’s even before you get to the Beers from Friends section.
Cocktails? If the Lemon Drop #2 is any guide, you’re in very safe hands: it’s a superbly balanced mix of white rum, Curaçao liqueur, lemon and lemon ale. (Make sure you toast the tree as you bring it to your lips.) Wine? It’s pleasingly mostly Victorian, and studded with hits from the legendary likes of Hochkirch, Latta, and Defialy, but should you feel the need to branch out with a classic Champagne, a sparkling from Sussex, a Chablis or a little Beaujolais, they’ve got your back.
