From a to the wire opening day to being a much-loved Hastings institution, The Seadog recently celebrated its first anniversary. We chat to owners Joseph Ryan and Holly Murdoch to see how the journey has been
Can you give us a potted history of The Seadog?
Holly: From the info we have gathered, the pub, originally named The Royal George, first opened its doors in 1853 and was originally under the patronage of the historical brewery, Watney’s. It operated as a traditional railway beer house. The pub took on many guises over the years, including Grace’s Wine Bar, The Priory, The Bat and Ball, and Frank’s Front Room. In more recent years, it had a close call with a planning application to convert it into flats. We have heard some other great stories of various comings and goings in The Seadog before our time from our customers, but probably best to leave some of those tales in the past.
What attracted you to taking it over?
Joseph: I really like the town of Hastings, the mixed bag of people that call it home and its historical past make it a very unique place. We bought The Seadog because we were toying with the idea of getting a pub in the area, as we had moved down from London to renovate our house. It started as a joke really. We drove past the then Royal George one day and saw the for sale signs outside and went and did a viewing for the craic. I’m not sure how long that pub was sat for sale for, but certainly people weren’t lining up to buy it.
I immediately liked the lay out of the bar downstairs, and the location, in close proximity to the station and town. I saw a lot of potential for the upstairs too. The building is a bit of a Tardis. It looks relatively small on the outside, but it is a beautiful, spacious Victorian building.
And why was Hastings the perfect place for a new venture?
Joseph: There is a lot of opportunity in Hastings to do something cool. It’s a lively little town, with a great music and art scene, as well as a good crowd of people down here. There is already some exciting stuff happening in hospitality down here which attracted us to open a business. The first pubs I went to here were The Crown and Brewing Brothers, two very different, very good pubs that made me think this town is somewhere I could live. We also love the Jolly Fisherman, which always has a great selection of beer, along with Eel and Bear. The Cove, up in Fairlight, Heist and Farmyard are all very good at what they do. The amazing coffee (and people) at Stooge or Café La Mer got us through the months leading up to opening our pub. There are honestly too many great venues and people to mention.
Holly: Maybe it’s New Town’s time to shine now – with Eel & Bear, Brewing Brothers, and newly re-opened Prince Albert, New Town could be crowned the Hasting’s Beer Mile!
Joseph: But the real reason we ended up setting up shop in Hastings is a bit of an offbeat love story. Holly and I broke up for a bit, and during this time I bought a house on auction and moved down here part-time with a buddy. I knew East Sussex and Hastings, as Holly is from Robertsbridge, and we had good times exploring Hastings and the surrounding area in our campervan. When we got back together, we moved down here full-time and we both love a project, hence The Seadog was born.
Holly: I was a bit surprised to hear Joseph bought a house down here. I have always loved Hastings. My parents met at The Stag in Old Town and lived on the High Street in the late 70s/early 80s. As cheesy as it sounds it did feel a bit like fate stepped in.
We are both in love with Hastings and how quirky it is here. Having grown up in the area, Bonfire Night is up there with Christmas for me. Then there is Green Man, Pirate Day, Fat Tuesday… and a plethora of other random events that make the town so great, and that we look forward to being part of.
What challenges did you face?
Joseph: Many! We got the keys for the pub on the first week of January and set a deadline to open the pub on 15 April for Holly’s birthday. Because the building had sat empty for so long there was a lot of work to be done to get it open in time. We had to pull out the old décor, put in floors, fix roofs, build a kitchen, redo electrics – the list was long, and problems kept cropping up. Getting beer pouring was the least of our worries.
We were also living upstairs at the time as our house was unliveable and being renovated at the same time. The upstairs of The Seadog is a mixture of a student flat meets Trainspotting. We can now look back at that time and laugh.
The day we opened was chaotic. We had electricians working until 3am the night before we opened, friends and family came in to help us clean up tables and put them in place on the day, wires were hanging from the ceiling, all power went out 30 mins before opening – it was mental. By some miracle we served our first beer at 6pm on 15 April and had a great opening night.
From day one, what did you want The Seadog to be all about?
Joseph: An unpretentious pub, great craic, and serious beer.
You are approaching your year anniversary – how have things gone?
Holly: It’s been an incredible year. Nerve-racking, stressful, full-on, but hugely rewarding, and most of the time, great fun. It’s a great little pub, which is going from strength to strength. The pub is busy, we have a great crowd in, and our team are fantastic.
Pubs take time to evolve and begin to breath their own kind of character. The Seadog is contently evolving. It is such a different pub to the opening night. It needed to grow some barnacles, get worn in a little.
We are proud of what we have created, but it is important to say how incredibly blessed and grateful we are for the love and support we have had from everyone. The community, customers, the team, and friends and family have all played a part in building The Seadog.
What do you look to offer with drinks at The Seadog?
Joseph: We have always led with quality craft beer in my pubs, I like to keep up with what is happening with beer and constantly on the lookout for cool breweries that are producing outstanding beer such as Floc from Canterbury and Beak in Lewes. Holly is very keen to step-up the game on our wines, so they are as good as the beer line-up. So more natural wines, a bigger variety by the glass, and continuous new wines on rotation is the plan.
And how have you approached the food menus?
Joseph: Most publicans will tell you that the kitchen has a reputation for being difficult. Whilst we really haven’t had any major setbacks, the hardest thing for us at The Seadog was getting the kitchen running exactly how we wanted it to. The food side of a business is highly demanding and an area in which you have little space for error and where customers are probably the most discerning.
Recently, I have leased out my kitchens to chefs. For me it works well. I like the collaborative aspect of it, and it also leaves me to focus on the operations of the pub overall, rather than getting pulled down in each detail of the kitchen. It is beneficially positive for both sides.
We are delighted to be working with Becci & Rob from Orchard Road, who took over the kitchen residency at the beginning of January. We work very well together, the food fits perfectly with what The Seadog is about, and the guys are smashing it.
What are your hopes for the future?
Holly: First and foremost, our biggest hope for the future is that The Seadog will continue to grow into the best pub it can be.
We would love to start doing more in the way of events and are also excited to say that we will be launching a very exciting brunch menu this summer, so look out for that.
Lastly, we are finalising plans for what to do with the upstairs of the pub, so lots to be done, and lots to look forward to.
