An award-winning name in city pubs has added a fourth site to its mini empire - just a stone’s throw away from the original location.
Colin Keatley, who runs the Fat Cat on West End Steet, has owned the former Perseverance pub on Adelaide Street for more than three years - but resisted the temptation to make it his fourth pub.
Instead, it has served as a function room for the business, with Mr Keatley hiring it out privately as well as hosting events including quizzes and curry nights under the guise of The Fat Percy.
But after the coronavirus pandemic forced Mr Keatley’s hand, that is all about to change and on Friday, The Fat Percy officially became the fourth pub in the Fat Cat family.
Mr Keatley said: “Since being allowed to re-open after the lockdown the Fat Cat itself has been operating at around 65pc capacity. On certain nights that is manageable, but on peak nights - Fridays and Saturdays in particular - we have genuinely found ourselves having to turn people away because there simply isn’t enough space for them to come in within the guidelines.
“This way, if we do have to turn people away, they won’t have to go far for a similar experience.”
In recent weeks, the former function room has undergone a major revamp to gear it up for running as a pub in its own right and welcomed its first punters on Friday.
“Like all the Fat Cat pubs, it has a traditional feel, but it will be slightly different to the original down the road,” Mr Keatley added. “It will be serving several different gins and we’ve added keg lines for those craft beers which are so fashionable at the moment. And of course there will also be plenty of the real ales we are known for, though not quite as many as down the road.
“I think the Fat Percy may end up attracting a slightly younger clientele that The Fat Cat.”
The new pub joins the Fat Cat, the Fat Cat Brewery Tap on Lawson Road and The Fat Cat and Canary on Thorpe Road in Norwich
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