Allsopp's Blue Stoops ready for service

A new public house on London's Kensington Church Street will open on Wednesday 9 October. 

Launched by the team behind Allsopp’s Brewery, founder Jamie Allsopp will open The Blue Stoops in homage to the original Blue Stoops in Burton-upon-Trent, where his family brewed from 1730.

Experienced pub operator Charlie McVeigh, founder of The Draft House group, is assisting Jamie with the building and launch of the pub.

He has recruited chef Lorcan Spiteri, founder of restaurant Caravel, to create the launch food offer. The menu will begin with a number of small plates including pressed potato, mussels and velouté, and charred guinea fowl, apricot harissa and dragoncello, before moving onto larger plates, such as chicken, baby leek and black trompette pie and cod, pepperonata, chickpeas and aioli, with the dessert menu featuring pub classics including steamed plum pudding with cream.

Samuel Allsopp, Jamie’s seven times great-grandfather, is revered as the inventor of the India Pale Ale style of beer, which he first brewed in a teapot in 1822. 

"It has been a lifelong ambition of mine to revive my family’s lost beers and I’m delighted to open our first pub in 90 years," says Jamie. "As with any good pub, food is an integral part of the experience, and we are so thrilled to be working with Lorcan on the menu. He is rooted in British food, and is bringing a selection of true pub classics to our dining room."

A quick history lesson

In the 1850s, the first Blue Stoops was described as ‘so old no one knew of its having a beginning’ before disappearing completely, with not even a picture of it surviving.

As such, the team has gone about rebuilding The Blue Stoops aided by a set of yellowing plans unearthed in a local library. 

The Allsopp family found great success brewing and selling cask ale in the 19th century.

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