It was like when Usain Bolt was at his peak. Everyone would line up, but everyone knew they were racing for second place. No one minded. It was just the way it was. It was like that when the Bravos were announced and there was a category for “The Best Local” and The Eddy lined up on the grid. You see, the Bravos aren’t voted for by industry or by commerce or so-proclaimed experts, they’re voted for by the public. By us. (Ed’s disclaimer. The Eddy is The Whistler’s local and yes, we’re a little bit biased).
Gilly: Congratulations. First of all, how does it feel?
Hatt: I think it’s the reward of all the hard work. It’s great to know that people obviously love our pub as much as we love it ourselves.
Gilly: What does it mean “Best Local”? ‘The Pub’ in Britain has always been about community. It’s somewhere you go to be welcomed into a place that you’d call a second home. And in a time when people are so wrapped up in the social media world, this is the real world, isn’t it?
Hatt: We’ve always tried to get to know the locals, been aware of people in the streets, recognise people, say hello. And then call people by their name. It’s all about remembering the people and knowing that they’re important. Welcoming people when they come into the pub and when they leave the pub saying goodbye, thanks for coming. All those little details make people feel special. When we took the pub over (Hatt and Mark Reed took over the pub the month before the first Covid lockdown) we had to really work at it because nobody used to come in here. The locals hated this pub because it was like a club with horrible music and drugs at the weekend. So it was a lot of hard work. Mark’s pretty good at schmoozing people and we just really put our arms around the neighbourhood.
We’ve got a fantastic team. People like Bethany are so important to us and to the locals who come here.
Gilly: As a punter I know I’m going to get looked after, I know there’s not going to be any trouble. It feels really safe for women coming out on their own, they can sit at the bar knowing that they’re completely safe.
Hatt: We have our eye on everybody, we’re here all the time and know how it all works.
Jess: People don’t realise how much work we actually put into the pub and what makes all our events successful is the amount of detail that we put into it. Hatt and I are really good team. We’re absolutely on the same page. We both come from fashion world, the art world, and we’re used to organising shows.
Gilly: So take me through the Bob Ross Night as an example. (Bob Ross is painter, big hair… you’ll have to go to one of the nights and see) Tell us about the presenter, Dolly Rocket.
Jess: Dolly Rocket and I were together in a cabaret group in the 1980s and Dolly has gone on to become a notorious Brightonian. She runs Proud Cabaret in Kemp Town. And when we realised that Bob Ross Nights were a thing, we decided to make it more fun, throw in a bit of glitter and glitz, So we asked Dolly and she jumped straight on board.
Hatt: She’s the long lost love child of Bob Ross, so she comes in this Bob Ross outfit and she’s larger than life and really funny. It puts all the painters at ease.
Jess: When we organise an event, we think how would we like it to be. Each time, we set up an easel and get everything – all the brushes, the paint,the palate, everything in place. We ask oursleves: ‘Have I got somewhere for my drink? Have I got somewhere I can sit down? Is it comfortable?’ This is how we plan our stuff. We have very high standards, and we want our guests to really enjoy themselves and go away.
Hatt: All the events are really good fun. Quite a few people just come to sit and watch. I don’t think we’ll ever do events in the pub where we’re closed for private parties birthday parties. It has to be open to the public, you know, otherwise it becomes an exclusive thing. And we don’t want that. We live upstairs, so it’s our home. It’s as important to us as it is to everyone else.
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