Basketmakers Arms

Brighton, East Sussex Fuller's leasehold Licensee Peter Dowd has been at the Basketmakers Arms for 21 years and his devotion to the small,...

Brighton, East Sussex

Fuller's leasehold

Licensee Peter Dowd has been at the Basketmakers Arms for 21 years and his devotion to the small, back-street local shows no signs of waning. "It's a fabulous little pub," he says.

Small it might be, but it has a throughput of 600 barrels per year - a figure that would be envied by many large managed houses.

Real ale is the Basketmakers' speciality and the reason why the pub is always crowded. There are eight ales on offer with six brewed at Fuller's Griffin Brewery in London. The Basketmakers was formerly owned by Gale's, but when Fuller's took over the Hampshire brewer in 2005, it sensibly let tradition continue at the pub. Three popular Gale's brews - HSB, Butser Bitter and Festival Mild - are stocked alongside three of Fuller's stalwarts - London Pride, ESB and Discovery. Before the takeover, HSB was the best-seller and continues to be so. The two other ales on offer are selected by Dowd from a comprehensive range of guest ales.

The pub's high barrelage and small cellar means Fuller's has to make two deliveries a week to ensure it doesn't run dry. In addition to real ale, the 150-year-old pub stocks between 80 and 90 whiskies.

Over the years, Dowd has decorated the interior with advertising signs, tins and items of brewing memorabilia. "It's all my own handicraft and it's a look that people try to imitate, but can't," he says.

Dowd and his number two, Abbi Mawer set exacting standards for the pub's small team and the care lavished on the beer is repeated in the food offering. "We don't take reservations and we have people queuing outside the front door for our Sunday roasts."

Fish dishes are also popular and Fridays are devoted to offering the best of the local catches. The reasonable prices of the meals have been acclaimed in the Good Pub Guide, which voted the Basketmakers as the best-value food pub in 2006.

Dowd is almost at a loss to figure out why the Basketmakers is such a success story. "I think the pub has become organic and developed on its own," he says.