During one their first dates, enjoying pints of mild, a couple while away the evening in one of the UK’s most fashionable cities.

But no, we’re not talking about 2022. Instead this is Liverpool in the late 1980s….

And although they were both working in hospitality back then, little did Julie and Les O’ Grady know that some 30 years on, they’d be running a different hospitality business of their own.

For Julie and they’d meet at Dunny’s Sports & Social Club. They’d get married, and have two children, Les would run a successful aquatics company while Julie had a decorated career in the NHS.

But after Les decide to call time on that venture, he’d hang up his fishing net and pick up his mash paddle, with Julie joining full time several years later.  

And only last weekend Neptune Brewery, the business they co-founded, celebrated its 7th birthday. It’s a business that has grown and expanded since starting out in 2015, and one that looks set for its biggest year yet in 2022.