“It’s nice to be recognised as an interesting pub to hang out in”
Delia and Tristan Brady-Jacobs, owners of Hobo Kiosk in Liverpool(Image: Iain Watts)
A micropub in Liverpool has been named one of the best in Europe. Hobo Kiosk on Bridgewater Street in Liverpool city centre has been listed in the European Bar Guide 2025’s top 100 bars.
According to the European Bar Guide 2025, the venue is the 89th best bar in the continent. The eccentric pub, which serves a selection of craft beers as well as an array of spirits, is ran by husband and wife, Delia Brady-Jacobs and Tristan Brady-Jacobs, who opened it in 2018.
Found down in the basement of a surviving brick warehouse on the corner of Jamaica Street, it was previously a bazaar of the same name, and has retained the same unique feel – with its owners calling it a “cabinet of curiosities”. Inside, the walls are adorned with a fascinating display of odds and ends, while jazz is often heard piping in through the speakers.
The European Bar Guide gave Hobo Kiosk a score of 8.8/10, describing it as “unique with a distinctive identity and character, a basement bar with local beers and fabulous hospitality”. It received especially high praise for its style, décor, atmosphere and character.
When the ECHO approached Delia to ask how she felt about the listing, she was unaware of it. She said: “I think it’s great.
“I mean, we get a hell of a lot of Europeans coming to our pub anyway – and they always have done since we opened. We get people from as far as Norway, Denmark, all sorts.
“We have a group of lads from Denmark and Norway who always come in for a few drinks before they go to the Liverpool match. But we got people from Italy, France, Austria and Belgium – absolutely everywhere, as well as our locals and our regulars. So we’re a real mix-match of customers, which is great.
“I wouldn’t necessarily call them tourists, I’d call them interesting travellers who are looking for places that have good local craft beer and small pubs where you can chat to people. I think that’s what we like about it. Quite often we get people come in and I’ll ask how they found us and they’ll say: ‘Our friends were visiting the UK a few months ago and said to pop along to Hobo Kiosk’.
The micro pub can be found on the corner of Jamaica Street in the Baltic Triangle(Image: Iain Watts)
She continued: “A lot of it is word of mouth. And it’s always great when somebody puts something up, someone who people follow because they go and investigate different bars and stuff like that. So that’s always nice. You know, it’s nice to be recognised as an interesting pub to hang out in.
“It’s a small, seated pub so it lends itself to conversation and I think people love that. And you always find someone on the next table, so it becomes a bit of a hub, a bit of a community hub, and everyone sort of advises each other on places to go to and stuff like that. So yeah, it’s a nice little place. It’s very busy on the weekend but it’s very nice.
“It’s actually really nice for a small basement pub to be discovered by the European Pub Guide. So often, when you see lists of places that people are told to go and investigate, they tend to be quite large establishments – or even ones which are found in several cities. To have somewhere small like us is great. And it also confirms that what we’re doing is okay and that people really like it.”
In its assessment of Hobo Kiosk, the European Bar Guide said: “A former shop, crowdfunded into a bar, the brainchild of Delia and Tristan Brady-Jacobs, you can safely state there is nothing else quite like it in the city, or indeed for miles around.
“Set in a shallow basement (think Czech style), you will be greeted with an interior that is an eclectic labour of love, one of those bars you can sit in for hours and find something new to look at. It’s colourful, it’s bright, it’s personalised, but it’s also homely, somewhere you’d want to stay a while.
Inside Hobo Kiosk(Image: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)
“A friendly greeting and farewell is always provided to those who visit the venue in the spirit with which it has been established. Unashamedly quirky with a personal touch that quite obviously sets it apart from more commercial operations.”What about the drinks? Well, a small bar focusing on local independent brewers. Beers are all keg rather than cask, but this works perfectly well for the operation and its intentions, while there are bases covered for alternatives.
“In such a quirky, colourful bunker conversation naturally flows, pinging from table to bar to table, each group sharing why they ended up here today, what they’re up to and where they’re heading next.
“A community focused venue with musical and artistic leanings, so you can find gigs and events here at an all-round lovable and distinctive bar we hope will be around for many, many years, indeed generations to come.”
Coming in at first place on the list is La Fleur En Papier Doré/Het Goudblommeke in Paper, Brussels. It is described by the guide as “pub-going at its finest”.