Steam Town Brew Co

This hugely popular brewhouse, located on Bishopstoke Road, has come out of the other side of lockdown in great shape with a newly refurbished adaptable extra dining room upstairs – complete with a vintage train door in its bar counter. The distinctive interior of the business, which opened in November 2017 and is run by David and his team, reflects Eastleigh’s railway heritage. In addition to producing its own beers, it offers a menu of enticing burgers and fries.

It’s been nominated as a Gem by James H who wrote: “Steam Town’s beers and burgers are always incredible and it’s a great place to meet friends and family for a meal or just a drink.”

General manager and head chef Liam joined the business around six months before the first lockdown. He said: “The entire period has been such a learning curve. In the beginning some of our staff volunteered to deliver beer to local residents – literally a customer would call or email and we’d deliver. We had just started bottling our products and we were so grateful for the incredible support from our regulars and the community.

“Then we looked at food and set up an app with a third party; it took a while to iron out glitches but the response was phenomenal, with us shifting 1,000 burgers in a week. Over the whole period we have gained a lot of new customers and we’ve become well-oiled machine as we’ve had to move from the open version of us to the lockdown version and back again.     

“I love working here because of the adaptability of the menu; I love coming up with different dirty burgers that complement the beers. Within reason, we can create anything we want and that gives our customers great choice - they’re always keeping an eye out for what’s new.”