It all started when two friends started brewing beer in the Lake District, now they’re opening their third Greater Manchester bar
Elliot Smith, general manager at Fell bar(Image: Manchester Evening News)
“Is this going to be a bar?” bellows a man whose voice carries with ease over the threshold. Amongst crates of bottled and canned beer, he deftly sticks his head in the doorway taking a wary look around.
“Yeah it is,” says Fell’s manager Elliot, with a small smile forming at the corner of his mouth. “We sell beer, craft beer, and we make our own beer,” he informs the potential customer who seems happy enough with the response and nods his head with appreciation.
In just a few hours time, Fell will open its doors on Petersgate in Stockport – joining a raft of like-minded bars, pubs and restaurants who jumped on the bandwagon and set up shop in the up-and-coming town centre. A few years ago, Stockport was perhaps somewhere you would just pass through on the train to Manchester.
Fell Brewery is opening a bar in Stockport (Image: Supplied)
But now, slowly but surely both independents and big brands have started to bed in, as the town continues to make its mark on the Greater Manchester food and drink map. In the last 12 months alone, 10 new bars, restaurants and cultural venues have opened, footfall in the town centre is rising, and monthly events like Foodie Friday are drawing thousands.
Someone who clocked this early was Elliot Smith, the general manager of Fell bar Chorlton, who will be also overseeing their new venue on Petersgate in Stockport. “I’ve lived in Manchester for a while and I just knew Stockport was the next spot, it’s an up-and-coming area,” he says.
“We tried to open here a couple of years ago but ended up doing the Northern Quarter. Of all the areas around Manchester, Stockport is really the one with something really going on.”
The St Sunday Lager and stout at Fell bar in Stockport(Image: Manchester Evening News)
Fell Stockport, located in the former MØ6B site in central Stockport, represents the third site for Cumbria’s Fell Brewery. They also have three bars in the Lake District, where their story first began.
As Elliot recalls: “Two guys from the Lake District started brewing their own beer and then they took over a bar in Penrith. They then started brewing in a village nearby, and next they opened a place in Kendal and then brought it over here to Chorlton.
“In between they were brewing a lot of beer and sending it out to the different pubs in the Lake District. Following that they took over the place in the city centre and now they’re opening this one.”
The bar also sells beers and wine to takeaway (Image: Manchester Evening News)
Last year, the brewery gave a Northern Quarter venue a lifeline as it took over the former Pelican site, an independent craft beer bar on the corner of Dale Street and Tariff Street.
Under Elliot’s stewardship, Fell Stockport will bring the same warm, laid-back and community-focused atmosphere that has made their Chorlton bar such a success. Punters are being told to expect an easy-going space built around good beer, good company and proper neighbourhood hospitality.
In terms of drinks, guests can look forward to a rotating line-up of our best Fell beers, fresh from the brewery, alongside a carefully curated selection of guest breweries from across the UK and beyond.
Elliot Smith, who runs the Stockport and Chorlton branches of Fell(Image: Manchester Evening News)
“The St Sunday Lager and session IPA are the classics that everyone usually goes for, but a lot of the others are rotating so the IPAs, the 0% is really popular, and we have a nice stout as well,” adds Elliot.
“The cask beers are always really good – golden ale, pale ales and stouts, plus the sours rotate. We try to mix a bit and have at least one of each style of beer.
“Each bar we have in Manchester is quite different. But because I run the one in Chorlton and know what works there, I’ve been able to replicate a couple of things from over there like the house wines because they are really good and sell well.
Beers at Fell Brewery in Stockport (Image: Manchester Evening News)
“With a lot of the cool spots in the area it will bring even more people here that are looking for nice beers and wines.”
As well as stopping off for a drink, the bar will also be selling a range of cans to takeaway. This includes their popular Tinderbox IPA, Chocolate Stout, their Fell x Simon Rogan Damson & Perilla Sour, and Beck 0.5% options. There’s also some natural wines to try at the bar and available for takeaway.
The new Fell bar in Stockport opens on Friday, 28 November. It will be open Wednesday through to Sunday every week. Wednesday and Thursdays it will be open 4pm until 10pm, Fridays and Saturday, 1pm until 12am, and Sundays 4pm until 10pm.
Fell Stockport, 10 St Petersgate, Stockport, SK1 1HD.