Welcome to The Phoenix
The Phoenix is situated on the corner of Old Dover Road and Cossington Road, between the County Cricket Ground and Canterbury city centre. A Free House, The Phoenix always endevours to stock eight real ales, including one mild. Food is available lunchtimes and evenings, there is outdoor seating on our beer terrace, a covered smoking area and a patron's car park to the side.
Bob & Nilla Griffiths are now the licensees, having also been running the Rose & Crown in St.Dunstans for over three years and now transferring their attentions to The Phoenix. While both now are retired, Bob was previously in medical sales whilst Nilla ran two hairdressing salons. Last owning pubs thirty-four years ago in Rochester, including The Don Cossack, they now turn their attentions and fondness of real ale to one of Canterbury's best known hostelries, well loved amongst cricket fans, visitors to the city and locals alike.
Bob's family were in Pubs all his life and he learnt his cellar skills from his step father who apart from being a Licensee had also been a dray man for twenty-five years, and so there was nothing you could tell him about beer, (one quote being "there are no such thing as bad beers, just some better than others").
Featured ales this month - May
The Cottage Brewing Company "Clifton Ale" : (ABV 4.4%)
“ruby red traditional best bitter.”
Based in the heart of rural Somerset, The Cottage Brewing Company was founded in 1993 by Chris and Helen Norman and has won gold medals at beer festivals all over the country, including Taste of the West, Supreme Champion for the South West of England and Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) Supreme Champion Beer of Great Britain for its strong ale, Norman’s Conquest. The brewery has a large portfolio of award winning ales, all of which are brewed with interesting and prominent hop aromas. The brewery has a reputation for not sparing it’s hops! From them comes 'Clifton Ale', descibed as a ruby red or copper coloured traditional best bitter, well hopped with Challanger and Cascade Hops giving a bitter sweet lingering finish. Pictured on the pump clip is the famous Clifton Suspension bridge, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel but not completed until five years after his death. In 1885, a 22-year-old woman named Sarah Ann Henley survived a fall from the bridge when her billowing skirts acted as a parachute; she eventually died in 1948 at the ripe old age of 84.
Watsum's, "Hengist" : (ABV 5.0%)
“a long fruit hop”
The Wantsum Brewery is named after the Wantsum Channel which is the watercourse separating the Isle of Thanet and what was the mainland of the county of Kent. The brewery sits on what would have once been one of the major tributaries to the Wantsum Channel. From them comes 'Hengist', named after the Anglo Saxon invader, one of the two Germanic brothers who led the Angle, Saxon, and Jutish armies that conquered the first territories of Britain in the 5th century and who is traditionally listed as the founder of the Kingdom of Kent. Older drinkers may also recall it was the Sealink car ferry of the same name which washed up on the beach at Folkestone during the Great Storm of 1987. Described as "golden pale ale with flavours of biscuit malt balancing a long fruit hop", Hengist was winner of the Dover Winter Beer Festival in Feb 2010 and bronze Medalist at the South East Regional Championship in both July 2010 & 2011.
Wantsum BreweryCanterbury’s award winning brewery
visit The Phoenix to try an ever changing selection of Wantsum's beers !
Click here to visit the Wantsum Brewery's own website to read more.
