Bartender's Choice Ian Swindell, Duck & Drake
Where the stars behind the bars reveal their favourite drinks - this fortnight, Fiery Red
Bartender's Choice: Ian Swindell, Duck & Drake
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We like our beer here at Leeds Guide. So we get very excited when this issue’s friendly bartender Ian, the manager at the Duck & Drake, tells us he’s treating us to an exclusive brew. “We’re the only pub in Leeds that sells this at the moment,” Ian says, as he pours the chestnut red ale. He’s giving us a pint of Fiery Red, which is brewed by the Nook Brewhouse in Holmfirth. The family-run brewery is connected to the Rose & Crown pub in the town and only opened last summer, with the aim of creating real ales produced in time-honoured fashion.
Has the beer been going down well with customers? “Yeah, really, really well,” Ian says. “We had another one, just called Red, and that was very good as well - that shot into my top three favourite beers of all time. We sold a barrel in a day and we’re going to get some more. Really nice beer. And we had the Nook Best on, which has also done really well.”
We taste the Fiery Red - and it really is a fantastic beer. Beautifully smooth, with a touch of fruitiness and perhaps just a hint of warm spice, it goes down an absolute treat. A superb beer. As well as being expertly crafted, the beer’s quality must also be testament to the care they take of their ales at the Duck & Drake, a pub that has been revitalised since it was taken over six months ago. “The new owners have come in here and spent a lot of money on the place and it’s reaped its rewards,” Ian explains. “Pretty much everybody who’s in this room is a regular, but we’re also getting lots more young people in thanks to the live music. We’ve just got in touch with the Leeds College of Music and they’re going to have a night on Wednesdays, so that should be good.”
Ian is certainly a man who knows his music - it only turns out he played the drums for the likes of Cockney Rebel as a session musician, back in the day. Was that as glamorous a lifestyle as everyone imagines, playing in a rock band? “Not at all, absolutely not!” he laughs. “Not as glamorous as everybody would like to think it is. I played two nights in Brussels with Sparks before 20-odd thousand people. You were shunted from a hotel to the gig, back to a hotel, and you don’t see anything.” Still, it must’ve been quite lucrative? “Well not too bad, yeah. With a contract for one of the songs, I had 15 years of getting money out of it - and then, of course, when my 15 years ran out, it’s been used in every bloody film, documentary and advert going!” Which song? “Come Up… Make Me Smile. Could’ve made a bit more out of that, might’ve even lived off it yet!”
Originally from Manchester, Ian tells us he’s lived all over the country as a pub landlord over the past 22 years, but Leeds keeps pulling him back. “I love Leeds, I have to say. The only other place in Britain I think I’d love to live is Whitby. I was there a couple of weeks ago and it’s just magical, there’s something about it. It’s beautiful. You can’t get a better advert for Whitby than standing at the top of those steps and looking back over the housing and everything, it’s great. The people who live there seem to be of my ilk too. You know, an old hippy.”
Drink: Fiery Red
Price: £2.50
Duck & Drake, 43 Kirkgate, LS2 7DR, 0113 245 5432
Posted on Wednesday 17th March 2010
SO'H
Duck & Drake
43 Kirkgate, Leeds, LS2 7DR
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