"Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name."
The famous line is from the theme song of Cheers, an iconic sitcom about a group of people who drink in the same local bar in Boston. However, the show connected with audiences from all over the world as there's something about finding a place "where everybody knows your name" that is special to people from all walks of life.
Nothing quite unites a group of strangers like sharing a drink in the same pub and Liverpool's renowned community spirit is bolstered by the great local bars the city is home to. The Dead Crafty Beer Company on the corner of Dale Street is one of the city's bars that has proudly created its own community of regular drinkers - and is where I am fortunate enough to have found my own version of Cheers.
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I visited the bar on the night of its Christmas quiz, a sold out festive event of familiar faces where everyone knew each other. Gareth and Vicky Morgan opened Dead Crafty in 2016 and the owners told the ECHO how humbling it is to have created a place that has become a special hub to a community of people. Vicky said: "Running a bar has changed our life, but I'd say more so it's the customers who have changed our life because our circle of friends now is huge. We've made friends, not customers."
Dead Crafty boasts the vibe of a neighbourhood pub and Gareth said the idea was to create "a local bar in the City Centre". The married couple, who live in Garston, never envisioned they would be the brains behind the city's premier craft beer bar, but were inspired to open a specialist pub when they were on holiday in Houston and happened upon an event ran by Goose Island brewery.
The event gave patrons the chance to buy a vintage bottle of beer if their ticket was pulled out of a raffle. Gareth and Vicky were taken aback as they witnessed how craft beer could be a uniting force when the lucky people who had just got their hands on an expensive bottle started to share it out with others in the bar.
Vicky worked as an intelligence analyst for the NHS, but knew then that the next step in her career needed to be at the helm of a craft beer bar. The 45-year-old said: "They were complete strangers sharing it with everyone. That was the lightbulb moment when we realised there was nothing like this in this country that has that bunch of people together talking about beer and tasting beer together."
Dead Crafty's combination of 20 rotating taps and variety of cans and bottles in the appropriately titled Fridge of Dreams has since meant the bar has established itself as an acclaimed craft beer destination. The bar's supreme offering was recognised when it won the SIBA UK award for Best Independent Craft Beer Bar, a prize Vicky described as "the Oscars of the beer world".
Gareth told the ECHO the beer selection is the catalyst for why people initially visit, but thinks the atmosphere is why people keep returning. The 43-year-old said: "You come here first because you like the craft. The commonality of this bar then comes because you're then drinking with likeminded people, owners and bar staff who are all here because we love the beer. Everyone comes for the beer and the friendliness that comes with that has all evolved from that initial love."
The heart and soul that infuses this bar with its personal touch started from the very beginning as family and friends were recruited to get their hands dirty in the arduous project to transform the building at 92 Dale Street that hadn't been occupied for the previous 12 years.
The owners faced a race against time to finish the pub for the grand opening and Vicky laughed as she revealed her dad was still helping to paint the skirting boards two weeks before the launch event. Gareth added: "I think everyone likes that the origin story of the bar involved every member of both families.
"We're very active today in saying this is a family owned and run bar. It is all about the community, the regulars and is not about making money. These types of bars can't make the same kind of money that big chains do because we don't have the margins."
I first attended the bar at the launch event back in March 2016 - and Vicky said it amazes her how a band of regulars was immediately established. She said: "I always say if you come in once then you're a regular by the time you leave.
"Our nickname is a crawl crasher because people go on pub crawls, we're the first stop and then they don't want to leave. You can come in on your own but you're never alone here. The bar staff will know you or you'll make friends with one of the regulars."
A familiar face you may be greeted by in Dead Crafty is Colin Harvey Rowe, who can often be found sharing out a can of stout at the bar. The magic of a local pub is how it forges new bonds, but the beauty of Colin's story is how it reconnected long lost friends.
He told the ECHO: "I was really close with Vicky for a lot of years and then we lost touch a little bit. I met her and Gareth at a food festival at Sefton Park about six months before Dead Crafty was about to open. I'd not seen them for five years and they were opening a bar. First night I made sure I was in and then my life was changed.
"I can look back and say that so many of my best nights over the last six years since the bar opened have been in there. Just with friends, drinking, singing and dancing."
Colin may be named after an Everton FC legend, but it doesn't take long into a conversation to realise his allegiances lie on the red half of Merseyside. However, the 52-year-old explains the importance of a community bar like Dead Crafty is that it's a space where a thing like club colours goes out the window.
He said: "My old fella had a local pub when he was a young man. He went to his local and I never thought I'd get that, but I've found this one. It's hard to explain why that's so special but there's something about that familiarity of going in somewhere and the barman will know what you want.
"I've made some great friends from just me being sat at one end of the bar and just asking someone at the other end 'what are you drinking'. It's the easiest line in the world but it's an in and after an hour we've moved together and we're great mates sharing a beer. My social circle has expanded now to all over the world."
Colin is a nurse who lives in Kensington - and he explained how the sense of belonging at a local bar has taken on an increased importance as unprecedented pressures facing the NHS have brought additional challenges to his professional life. He said: "After a shift I know I can finish work, walk down to Dead Crafty, see someone behind the bar and within 10 minutes someone I know will walk in and we'll be able to start chatting about what we are drinking. Everything else just goes away and that's special."
Dead Crafty reworked its business model to operate as a craft beer bottle shop and delivery service during the pandemic and ran fortnightly Zoom quizzes to ensure its regulars stayed in touch to foster a much-needed sense of community during a time when the spread of coronavirus forced us all to stay apart.
The community blossomed during this difficult period as Gareth and Vicky forged relationships with people from new regions as customers from as far away as Tel Aviv placed orders to get a taste of some beer from the Fridge of Dreams.
The bar has now established itself as a local in spirit as it attracts regular custom from people who don't live in the city but have still formed their own bond with Dead Crafty. Stephen Walmsley is originally from Bootle, but moved to London in the late 90s.
The talented chef knows his way around a high quality local as he fondly remembers the time he defeated Ian McKellen at the legendary actor's famed pub quiz at The Grapes in London. The 50-year-old joked: "We rinsed Gandalf. It was fantastic."
Stephen told the ECHO why Dead Crafty is often his first port of call whenever he makes the journey back to Liverpool Lime Street. He said: "Modern craft places can tend to be people on their phones checking in on Untappd or scratching their chins on whether a beer is Citra or Mosaic hops. But here every time I've got into a conversation with one person that has gone into something more interesting and it's all because of the personality of the owners.
"A pub can just be wood, flooring, taps and beer but if you don't imbue it with a personality then it's just a space with no heart and soul. Places like this, people like me come to for the beer but this place transcends that and it's become a family environment with a local vibe because of the people that run it."
Colin joked he knew Dead Crafty had become a special place when it changed how he listened to music, as classic songs had become closely associated with people he met through drinking at this bar. I retreated to the quiet of downstairs for the conversation with Stephen, but the interview is against the backdrop of a Dead Crafty favourite as a raucous singalong of Seal's Kiss From a Rose spills over into the chat.
A quick glance at the clock and it becomes clear my well thought out plan to conduct the interviews and get the last train home have long faded as I'm in the all too familiar position of once again plotting a taxi ride home from Dead Crafty.
However, the realisation doesn't fill me with dread as part of the magic of a local bar is it's a space where time can often run away from itself. There's no way Norm was ever getting off that barstool in Cheers to make the last train home, because the best laid plans will often go awry in a place where everybody knows your name.
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