I guess in today’s market place we should celebrate a pub lasting 160 years!!! We are proud that we are the current custodians of the Red Lion.

The 160th ‘birthday’ weekend went brilliantly with great live music, barbecues and of course some sunshine.

Below are the photos that show the massive crowds our Red Lion attracted.

Thanks again it was a fitting and memorable celebration.

Enchilada Paddy delighted the Red Lion by agreeing to play in Weymouth before heading off to play a gig elsewhere in Dorset. Paddy and the Band were enjoyed by a great audience at the Red Lion as they played outside the pub as they are a nine piece outfit, so getting the Band in the pub, for those that know our pub, would have been impossible.

Had the weather been a little kinder then this would have been a massive event. Paddy and the Enchiladas were well received and enjoyed the night and already we hope this can become an annual event!!!

Paddy, one of Derry’s best known singer- songwriters had appeared at Glastonbury this year after being invited to perform by Billy Bragg. Paddy, who with the Band have just released a new three track EP – performed as a solo artist at Glastonbury’s Leftfield stage.

Weymouth’s annual celebration of Seafood with its superb ‘Seafood Festival’ was enjoyed by locals, visitors and traders alike. Literally hundreds of people swamped the Red Lion to try our superb real ales and of course our seafood.

We had been celebrating all week to be fair and our seafood plates were a raging success as was the fresh barbecued mackerel and the Crab rolls and Prawn and Crayfish baps.

Jugs of Pimms were all the rage as the sun shone (at last!!!) for the two days.

The event itself is well worth attending so put it in the diary for next year as it is sure to be an even bigger event next time round.

Thanks to our entire team who worked so hard to deliver the food and drink to the many loyal fans of the Red Lion and indeed the festival itself.

IN THE NORTH SEA HALF OF ALL FISH CAUGHT ARE THROWN BACK OVER BOARD DEAD!!

The ocean is a source of food, a place for recreation, and its beauty has inspired countless artists. But, it’s under threat – from over-fishing and poor fishing practices.

The Red Lion supports Oceanic conservation groups that celebrate the beauty of the ocean, highlight the issue of over-fishing, help us all understand the threats to the ocean and make positive choices about the right fish to buy and eat.

We support Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (who we saw in London recently. Nice haircut Hugh!!) and his Fish fight campaign!!!!

Well the month of April has been a bumper time for the Red Lion and our sausage sales have hit new heights, you could say they have gone off with a ‘bang (er)!!!

As you will know we get our sausages from ‘Pampered Pigs’ a local farm in Bere Regis. Through the year we sell such great flavours of sausage and I thought we should tell you more about the flavours we do. Every day will be different as we offer three different sausage styles daily with our homemade creamy mash, red cabbage and our tasty onion gravy!! The flavours of sausage we bring in are the…………

So if you are thinking ‘sausage’ look no further than the Red Lion. We can spot a ‘Sausage face’ anywhere!!

We are famous for other homecooked dishes too so click on our ‘FOOD’ to see what else is on offer and look out for Beer and Bangers week in June 2011.

In recognition of the Red Lion’s 160th birthday in 2011 we have planned a series of ‘celebratory’ weeks and weekends throughout the summer months for our loyal customers to enjoy!!

The Red Lion in Weymouth is an ‘institution’ …………a ‘little gem’ of a pub and what could be better than dedicating ‘fun’ weeks to food and drink that has made the Red Lion so famous.

We start the ‘birthday’ celebrations rolling in May with our ‘Pie and Ale week’.

Then in June we have our very own ‘Folk Festival’ weekend on 3rd, 4th and 5th of June.

Also in June we really celebrate one of the Red Lions local food links with our ‘Beer and Bangers’ week. A great selection of sausages will be cooked that are supplied by our local sausage maker ‘Pampered Pigs’ of Bere Regis.

We then recognise the vital part Seafood plays in our menu and in Weymouth too with our Seafood Festival week culminating in Weymouth’s own Seafood festival Weekend!! This will be a week in which we encourage the sharing of seafood together with six seafood sharing opportunities!!

For the first time in August in honour of our fame for sausages and seafood we are celebrating with our special ‘Seafood, Sausages and Song’ weekend with barbecues and live music through the weekend of Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th August 2011.

We sign off our Summer Birthday celebrations in September with our ‘South Coast Food and Ale Week’ in recognition of the two things that have been  most important to the survival of the Red Lion over 160 years!!!

During Autumn and winter we will be having celebrations as our 160th birthday year draws to a close and on New Year’s Eve we will raise a glass to the next 160 years!!!

The winner gets £50 to spend at the Red Lion and the sketch was voted as winner by our regulars…thank you. The sketches will remain on the Red Lion website for you to enjoy and keep sending them in!!

At the Red Lion we are running a competition to find the funniest bar sketch from yester-year!!  Here is the link to a sketch featuring Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry sent in by one of our customers….hilarious!! There is a meal for two on us to the value of £50  for the best bar sketch sent in to our website info@theredlionweymouth.co.uk  over the next three months. I will screen the sketch and then it will be put on the news page. Then at the end of March 2011 we will choose the winner. If only we did this many bar snacks!!!! To view some other entrants click on our bar sketches page.

Here at the Red Lion we always have two of our ‘House ales’ available on our famous five pumps, first up is ‘Red Lion Pride’ which is our new addition that is brewed for us by Otter Brewery in Devon, a refreshing 3.6% ABV amber ale with fresh fruity hoppiness and secondly ‘The Red Lion bitter’ brewed for us by the Dorset Brewing Company based in Weymouth this is a 4.2% ABV a golden beer with a slight citrus finish.

Both beers are proving very popular with our customers and represent great value for money.

After an exceptionally busy summer and a very busy Christmas too it was time to celebrate a ‘job well done’ at the team’s first Christmas party (and it won’t be the last!!) since the Red Lion re-opened in 2009, so long overdue really!!

Thank you to the girls who dressed for the evening and you too Josh!!! It would seem that Phil and Brian had a ‘dress down day’ but nevertheless after an ‘interesting’ taxi ride to Sandbanks near Poole, the team ‘let their hair down’ and enjoyed excellent drinks and food at Café Shore. As you can see from the ‘usual party shots’ below a good time was had by all and after an even more ‘interesting’ taxi ride back to Weymouth the team hit the town!!!

Thank you to all our loyal customers who allowed for the pub to be closed for the evening we all really appreciate it!! To all the team a really big thank you for all your hard work over the last year and here’s to 2011!!!