Every table is taken on a sunny Wednesday afternoon at Beer Station.
The compact pub is found on Victoria Road in Formby, spitting distance from Freshfield station. It is nestled among the mansions of the town's 'Millionaire's Row', where the Rooneys, John Parrott, Jurgen Klopp and Brendan Rodgers have called home.
It is around 4.30pm and the pub is busy with regulars. At the bar is Ian Walsh, 68, who runs Beer Station with son Keir Walsh, 38.
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Over a Summer Rail Pale - an excellent ale brewed in-house - Ian speaks to the ECHO about his pub. He has lived in Formby for 38 years. Beer Station opened in 2016 and Ian hasn't looked back.
He told the ECHO: "I worked in IT for 30 years and had jobs with the civil service. I then went freelance but I'd had enough of the travel.
"This was something I always wanted to try. I wanted to open a pub years ago with a friend of mine, but that didn't happen.
"So we set up The Red Star brewery and we were looking to have a tap. Then I left the brewery and decided to go with a pub.
"This was a newsagent before. We set it up, my son and myself."
Everyone drinking in Beer Station seems to know one another. As 5pm arrives and more people venture in for a pint, they all nod at Ian and say hello as they walk in. The community that the pub has built is very important to Ian.
He said: "Being this close to the station is a real advantage. We got a lot of regulars and a lot of people passing through.
"There are no televisions, no blaring music - just conversation. Because it's small, people tend to share tables and talk to strangers. That's a huge plus.
"Someone who had lived in Galway for the last 30 years once said to me that this is like Irish pubs used to be. I'll take that.
"There is a group of old boys who get their table at the front reserved for them when they come in, but we don't do bookings. People take a seat at the ends of tables and all get chatting."
As with any pub, the beer is just as important as the atmosphere. Fortunately, Beer Station takes that seriously.
The Summer Rail Pale was very agreeable - light, hoppy and with a welcome touch of fruit. It's the sort of beer you could happily spend an entire summer's afternoon drinking.
After the pale, I try The Fat Milkontroller, a 5.9% milk stout. Another beer brewed in-house by Keir and his colleague Mike, it's quite a departure from the pale.
It is smooth and rich, packing a punch. Everything you would want from a stout.
As well as serving their own beer, the pub serves another cask ale as well as a mix of craft beers and lagers on draught.
Ian said: "Merseyside is now a region blessed with good breweries. It never used to be.
"We use Neptune (Bootle brewery) a lot, Liverpool Brewing in Speke, Brimstage from over the water. But we also go a bit further afield.
"We can only make two casks at a time. We took them to a beer festival in Sheffield in recent weeks and we have them at the Liverpool Beer Festival in the cathedral crypt."
A combination of good beer and a friendly, welcoming atmosphere is what keeps people coming back, according to Ian.
Ian said: "A lot of pubs now are really restaurants. And you can feel uncomfortable just going in and having a drink.
"If we were any bigger, we'd lose the atmosphere. It's a proper community pub.
"I know all the regulars well. There are a lot of people who have moved up here and they've come in here and their social life is now based around here and the people they've met here."
Ian added: "We've got the hairdresser next door, some of our regulars go and get their hair done and take a drink in with them. We've got the café around the corner, the chippy as well. They'll come and get a drink at the end of their shift and if they've got chips left over, they'll bring them in.
"People have made strong friendships through drinking here."
Running Beer Station is a far cry from Ian's previous career in IT. About his day-to-day work, he said: "I spend an hour getting set up, then I spend the rest of the day talking to friends".
In anyone's book, that's not a bad way to make a living.
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