Drink?, Hebden Bridge

Martin Ogley, in his brewer’s apron, looks every inch the bartender – no surprise given his background. ‘My first full time job saw me suited and booted working for Tetley’s Brewery, and from there I moved to an independent pub company and helped set up a small brewery in one of their pubs’. He ran it for about 12 years before moving to Bridestones Brewing just up the road – which is when he began his love affair with Hebden Bridge.

Ogley took possession of a former stove shop on Market Street and opened the Drink? doors in October 2014. Not strictly a pub, he describes it as a ‘bar and bottle shop’. Then came the devastating Boxing Day 2015 flood and Ogley had to start from ground zero. Today it’s a cool, stylish space, dominated on the ground floor by a massive, unmissable mural on one wall; the other walls are floor to ceiling cans and bottles of beer – over 100 from 5 miles down the road and as far as the USA.

Behind the bar, two cask ales – on visit, Nor’hop from Moor Beer Company in Bristol and Tail Whip from Cwrw Ial in Wales – the first community brewery in the country. Ogley rotates the cask ales frequently and apart from beer from local brewery Vocation, never runs the same offer twice. In addition there are a handful of kegs including Beavertown, Northern Monk and Black Jack from Manchester.

It’s a trouser shop too. Yep, you heard right. Local manufacturers HebTroCo provide a measuring service here as they don’t yet have a shop – so get your Moleskins while you’re enjoying a pint. Suits you sir.