If Narnia was down a flight of stairs in Liverpool, it would be Hobo Kiosk. This tiny pub in the city's Baltic Triangle is run by husband and wife duo Delia and Tristan. With carefully selected local drinks, unique design and atmosphere coupled with a warm Liverpool approach to hospitality.
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00:00Hobo Kiosk is quite possibly the friendliest and strangest little pub in the Baltic Triangle
00:05with a unique design, a cosy atmosphere and a warm approach to hospitality which Liverpool
00:11is famed for.
00:12This was an empty shell when we first started. We turned it into a shop and then we took
00:18it back to an empty shell again and we built various bits and pieces. I found the counter
00:24out on the streets. It was an old wardrobe.
00:27Three days after Tristan moved to the city he met Delia and they've been together ever
00:31since.
00:32We ran it as an arts shop for two years. We were going to walk away and it was the boys
00:38from Golf Fang who both individually said, they should make a great micro-pub. It's all
00:47about micro-pubs. And we were like, what? Come again? We have no idea what they were.
00:52The couple both worked in community art for 40 years before opening the space.
00:56Delia and I are Mrs Hobo. We were both community artists working in a variety of situations
01:05on the streets, in prisons, hospitals, with kids with locked in autism, every possible
01:11marginalised community. And come the credit crunch back in 2010, unfortunately, first
01:18out the door were us artists.
01:21As well as serving up a curated selection of drinks from the likes of local breweries,
01:25the place is also a feast for the eyes with its distinctive design.
01:29We have a house that's very like this, in fact more so. We often say this pub is like
01:35a minimalist Japanese stripped vac version of our house.
01:40Its walls are adorned with vintage prints, signs, paintings and it seems every spare
01:45space is taken up by unusual objects, from mannequins to a mariachi hat.
01:51We populated this space with our art and attracted other people that have been giving
01:57us some really interesting things. And it's then that we began to notice that people responded
02:04to the space.
02:06The European Bar Guide, which visits and profiles pubs and bars around the continent, recently
02:11named the establishment Joint Toff in the City alongside Peter Cavanagh's. The guide
02:16described it as unique with a distinctive identity and character, a basement bar with
02:21local beers and fabulous hospitality.
02:24We realised as we went along was that far from this being frankly our pension, something
02:29we could do and then get the heck out of Dodge. We enjoyed it, it gave us something exciting
02:38and something of value ourselves. But also we saw what people were getting from the kiosk,
02:46the Hobo kiosk itself.
02:48It can be tricky to find and you have to get your timings right to get in the door.
02:52When you come in here, if you're being a little rowdy, Mrs Hobo will show you the rules.