Julian and I are on tour at the moment, I’m volunteering at GBBF all week which is being held at the Birmingham NEC and Julian is practicing his drinking (I accept he doesn’t need much mroe practice). After the festival closed for the day, there aren’t really that many options at the NEC (well, no options) so we decided to pop to the Moxy Hotel bar despite me staying at the Hilton and Julian at the Premier Inn.
How sweet. We weren’t sure whether the hotel bar would be open, but it transpired that it was open until 02:00 and I think they’d only just finished serving food at 22:00.
Moxy Hotels are the Marriott chain aimed at millennials, so I consider that to be me, so I obviously liked it. I’m a bit confined to the Accor brand so I’ve never stayed at this chain, but I like the general concept and laid-back approach that’s offered here.
There were a fair few beer festival customers about, I’ve just chosen photos without people in them.
Motivational messaging.
I like this a lot and it’s designed to be a common area for guests, or indeed anyone, where they can work, drink, eat or relax. These things can easily slip into formulaic, but it seemed to be on the right side of quirky to me.
It’s design driven and I did wonder whether my excitement might fall when I reached the bar and saw the beer list.
It transpired that there were two beers from the Attic Brew Co and they’re an exhibitor at GBBF, so I assume they’ve had the foresight to go and place some of their cans in the hotel. This met my expectations as I didn’t want the excitement of a late-night Carling.
For the hard of hearing.
The Intuition from the Attic Brew Co and I rather liked this, tastes of stone fruit, juicy and quite punchy.
The Rollin Waves from the Attic Brew Co, I didn’t like this quite as much as it was rather dry, but there was still plenty of flavour.
The Gold Brummie from the local Birmingham Brewing Co, which was hoppy, light and fluffy (the beer, not Julian).
I think this was really quite an agreeable place. Their beer list is as long as their wine list, they’ve making an effort to try and not limit themselves to generic beers and the place did feel on-trend and comfortable. And it’s a handy place for anyone to visit after GBBF closes in the evening, or indeed, after any NEC event.