Visited on: Wednesday 3rd July 2019
Bob Thompson
The Doghouse is Weymouth’s first (and so far, only) brew-pub. It opened its doors to the public at 15.00 on 29th June 2018. This was a day earlier than advertised. No doubt to be used as a shake-down session.
The opening was covered live on Chesil Radio, an inspired move which must have bought additional publicity to the pub’s opening. Naturally, the Doghouse is dog friendly.
The founder of the Doghouse is David Joblin, who with a silent partner, leased the premises. So far, I have not found out what kind of business occupied the shop prior to the pub’s arrival. It is located in a back street which is roughly in the centre of the peninsular that forms Weymouth town. It is approximately equidistant from the Esplanade on Weymouth Bay and Radipole Lake to the west, with its yacht marinas.
It is to be found in Great George Street close to Weymouth Library. I entered the pub on a hot sunny day and had to adjust my eyes to see anything inside. The room is very narrow and in the area of the window were some tables made from upturned barrels. On the right side of the room there was just space for a little table, a small church pew and two chairs before it got narrower still.
In the narrow section there is a shelf on the left with a few stools. Opposite on the left some small tables and chairs have been squeezed in. After a step you reach the serving area with an L-shaped bar counter in front and to the right of the potential drinker.
On the way down to the bar I noticed the blue painted walls were covered with pump clips of beers missed and framed photographs as well as historic bottle labels.
Against the right wall is the stillage that holds six jacketed firkins, plus spares and empties. Beer is served directly from the cask here. Facing it on the left is a blackboard with the beer list alongside a large community notice board.
They offer a wide range of bottled domestic and foreign beer along with a selected wine list. They also offer speciality gins, Mead (traditional and black cherry flavour) also some country fruit wines.
Being in a cider-producing county it is only right that they have a good selection themselves, such as: Snail’s Bank (Bishops Frome, Herefordshire): Pig Squeal (7.0%), Very Perry (5.0%), Rhubarb cider (4.0%), Black Forest Cider (4.0%) (cherry, vanilla, blackberry) and Fruit Bat (4.0%) (strawberry and blackberry).
They also had First Press (4.0%) from the revived Taunton Cider Co of Church Stanton, Somerset.
Finally there was some from the home county in the form of Dorset Nectar (Weyford, Dorset) Dabinett Organic (5.8%) and Top of the Hill (5.5%) (lightly sparkling).
There are the usual pub snacks; nuts, crisps, scratchings, pickled eggs, cashews and pistachios along with pasties and pork pies.
There are normally six cask beers but when I called in they were down to four. These were: Plain Ales (Warminster, Wilts) Innspiration (4.0%), a golden ale; Hop Back (Downton, Wilts) Entire Stout (4.5%); Art Brew (Holsworthy, Devon) Elderflower Pale Ale (4.4%) and Wadworth’s (Devizes, Wilts) Summer Ale (3.9%). a pretty decent selection even though they were two short.
If you are in or around Weymouth, be sure to pay this little pub a visit. Please be aware of the opening hours.
Important Information:
The Doghouse Micro Pub, 2 Great George Street, Weymouth, Dorset DT4 8NN. Tel: (01305) 567134
Hours: Monday-Wednesday 12.00-19.00, Thursday 12.00-21.00;
Friday-Saturday 12.00-22.00; Sunday 12.00-17.00.
These are summer hours, times may change in winter.
Weymouth is a railway terminus served by trains from London Waterloo via Southampton and Bournemouth. They are normally twice an hour with a journey time of approximately two and a half hours.
Weymouth is also the southern terminus of the line from Bristol via Bath and Yeovil.
The service is infrequent.