North: Fat Cat

Sheffield, South Yorkshire Pub and brewing entrepreneur David Wickett was a man ahead of the game when he bought Sheffield's Fat Cat 22 years ago and opened a dedicated real-ale venue. The concept of pubs specialising in cask beer and offering customers a multi-choice of different ale brands was a relatively new phenomenon in the licensed trade back in 1982. It was also a quantum leap for the city of Sheffield, which was dominated by big national brewers and their tied pubs, with hardly a freehouse to its name. "Buying the Fat Cat was a terrific gamble," recalls David, who gave up a comfortable career as an economics lecturer. "The Fat Cat was owned by Stones Brewery at that time, dead on its feet and [had] virtually nothing going for it. "But I was fed up of not having a choice of beer when I went out for a drink, because it was the likes of Bass, Whitbread and Tetley literally being forced on drinkers. When I heard the Fat Cat was up for grabs I just went for it and the rest is history." In those 22 years, the Fat Cat has become one of the most successful cask beer houses in the north, with a string of regional and national awards to its name. It also has its own brewery, Kelham Island, opened by David in 1989, which now supplies four beers to the pub and a string of free-trade accounts across the region. Last November, the Fat Cat sold its 5,000th different beer brand, which reflects an amazing entrepreneurial success story. "We started selling just two beers, Theakstons and Timothy Taylor's Landlord, and built things steadily from there. Today, there are always 10 different beers on the bar, four of them from our own brewery and Landlord has been ever-present over the entire time," says David. Two beer festivals are held in the pub each year when some 25 different ales are on offer and there are tours and functions held on the adjacent brewery site. What's more, the presence of the Fat Cat and the brewery has helped rejuvenate an industrial city black spot. Although the regular clientele comprises a hardy element of cask-ale enthusiasts, the Fat Cat also plays host to a wide cross-section of customers from MPs to students. Two of the pub's full-time staff have been on the payroll since it first opened, with a third employed there for 20 years. The Fat Cat is a true beer experience and explodes the myth that cask ale is a spent force.