The Pen Factory launches a brand new menu

As its name suggests, Hope Street bar and bistro The Pen Factory was originally home to a fountain pen company which once made the only gold nibs in the UK!

Now its fascinating history is being re-written again.

The popular dining and drinking venue, which opened in 2015 as a reincarnation of the Everyman Bistro, has been taken over by seasoned hostelry owners Fiona Hornsby and husband Dominic who’ve added it to their pub portfolio of city centre Denbigh Castle and The Bridewell.

And Fiona admits:

“It’s really exciting. The Pen Factory is a lovely space, steeped in history – which we always enjoy – and, like all our venues, somewhere where everyone is welcome.”

Sitting next to The Everyman Theatre, The Pen Factory is a busy and vibrant bar, attracting theatre goers and Philharmonic devotees, as well as students from the universities and tourists trailing between Liverpool’s two cathedrals.

Its small plates and main courses menu is always guaranteed to get groans of appreciation, and if it’s just a drink you’re after, the airy space and beer garden is a great place to get together with your mates.

“The Pen Factory is quite a creative space and that’s something that’s different for us, but it’s great,” says Fiona. “We had a tap dancing and jazz performance by Sole Rebel last Sunday, and we have jazz on the first Wednesday of every month … in fact, the most asked question when we took it over was were we keeping jazz.  It’s really popular.”

The answer, of course, was yes, and Fiona adds: “It’s always busy on jazz night and it’s such good fun. There are loads of groups who use The Pen Factory on a weekly basis, like the chess club, and we have already started to have events of our own.

“We had a Burns Night event with tutored whisky tasting – and haggis on the menu – and we’ve had wine tasting evenings, which have been really popular, where we’ve paired the wines with dishes from the menu.

“And we hope to plan more.” 

Fiona and Dominic took over The Pen Factory in September last year and closed it for a short time to give it a little TLC, for while the have adopted the adage that ‘if it’s not broken don’t fix it’, they have made some changes to put their unique stamp on the place.

They changed all the chairs in the venue but kept the large tables, polishing them up to give them a shiny new lease of life, and added some smaller ones:

“The large tables are great especially when you get groups in of 10 and 12,” says Fiona, “but it’s nice to have a little more intimacy too if there’s just two or four of you.

“The beer range was very similar to what we do but we’ve extended it. We’ve now got five craft beers, five cast beers, a traditional cider and our German lager, as well as Thatchers and Guinness. 

“They did cocktails, but we’ve created a new menu that we wanted to do.”

Fiona adds:

“As with all our venues, we’re always trying to be better, we’re always trying to improve, and we’re always trying to raise standards and quality.”

Perhaps not to be improved on is the beer garden: “I love The Pen Factory beer garden because it’s been planted so well, you are in the city centre but you don’t feel like it. It’s a great space.”

The Pen Factory has got its familiar customers that Fiona and Dominic are enjoying getting to meet but she says:

“We have seen friendships grow in our other pubs and to me that’s what it’s all about, welcoming people whoever they are, and building a community.

“So while it’s been nice getting to know Pen Factory’s current customers, it’ll be nice to get to know some new ones too.”

Find out more about Pen Factory here.

Find all the latest Liverpool news here.

Find out what’s good up North on our new platform, The Northern Guide. 

From the best hotels, beauty spots, days out, food and more up North – visit thenorthernguide.com and follow The Northern Guide on Instagram HERE.