‘Crammed' (verb) - Full to Overflowing...

From the title you’ll no doubt be expecting a story of a pub at the peak of it’s popularity, full of adoring customers enjoying a range of top quality real ales...

Customer lines them up...

...well no - that’s not quite it....

This is a story of  a 'Herne Disciple’ the owner of a micro-pub, who is overflowing with determined optimism, despite the difficulties he has experienced, to own a successful micro pub.

It’s easy to forget when new micropubs are opening every week (if not every day) that there are also a proportion that are closing after relatively short existences.

Matt Lucker previously owned the Tram Stop Bar & Kitchen micro-pub in Portswood which closed in 2018.  I’d been in there once during a local CAMRA micro-pub tour, and it was a generously sized micro on a corner plot in Portswood's main shopping street.  It comprised a bar area and a lounge area with sofa seating etc where light lunch type meals were served.  The bar had a good range of real ales.  A really nice place and it’s a shame it didn’t make it.  According to Matt the costs - particularly the lease were just too high.

The Tram Stop micro pub from a January 2017 visit.

Despite the failure of his previous venture, Matt is back with the latest micro on the block, the Crammed Inn, 48 High Street Southampton, in a former Oceans gift shop and left luggage premises (an interesting combination?) according to the Daily Echo article covering the opening of his new venture.

Image - Google maps street view.

This is indeed a quite small micro - long and thin stretching back from the frontage, with the bar on the left hand side - seating mainly on the right, and the toilet and storage at the rear.  It seems to be quite well placed for customers though, near the centre of Southampton and the quay area, and also in a area which has been redeveloped to provide a significant number of blocks of upmarket flats.

Matt on the right behind the bar and chatting to David 

When I called in with my friend David just after the 4pm opening on Thursday afternoon it was quiet as you might expect, and in addition the micro has only been open for 3 months so Matt is still working to build up his customer base.

At the bar there were a couple of Urban Island cask ales, Urban Pale and Porter 28.

Pristine urban porter...

I’m a sucker for a good dark beer so went for the Porter.  It was a good choice, a 5% abv Porter with gentle hints of smokiness and chocolate according to Urban island. It was on top form (very good).

After a while another late afternoon customer arrived in the middle of a conversation with a mate on his mobile (which was on speaker) about fish and chips.  Though initially engrossed in his conversation the guy soon realised we were all enjoying the fish and chip discussion and, laughing with embarrassment, he ended the call,  ordered a pint of Upham Brewery’s UB5 keg ale, and sat down near the window.

Body art...

We received an enthusiastic welcome from Matt who chatted to us about his micro pub experiences, beers and his plans for the future.  The Crammed Inn is a pleasant micro-pub and Matt certainly deserves to succeed, especially after the hard knock he received with the closing of his previous micro-pub.

Perhaps his abundance of optimism also shines though in the name he has chosen for this pub.  It is certainly crammed with optimism, and there is no reason at all why it shouldn’t be crammed with customers...