All tagged David Jesudason

Running Down the Avenue — Stirchley Wines & Spirits in Birmingham

Running Down the Avenue — Stirchley Wines & Spirits in Birmingham

David Jesudason
Beer

Krishan Rajput takes an emerald Budvar bottle from a shelf and tells me how this is where his beer journey began in 1989. He explains how his family shop, Stirchley Wines & Spirits began selling a range of beers a world apart from other off-licences. This was a decade after his father, Amrik, opened the family business, Stirchley Wines & Spirits, in the south Birmingham suburb of the same name, near where the Cadbury’s factory still looms large. This is what initially drew the Rajputs to the area—Amrik worked as an engineer for the chocolate maker.

Born by the River — The Golden Smog in Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham

Born by the River — The Golden Smog in Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham

David Jesudason
Pubs

Today, John runs the Smog with his son, Cameron, known to friends and regulars as Boomer. He took the plunge on the pub after travelling to Belgium and Germany, which made him realise that the beer choice was generally poor in Stockton’s pubs. There were the town’s bankers—the nearby Sun Inn is famous for serving pints of Bass with cumulonimbus-like heads—but John argues that this strong local beer culture has held back Stockton.