Why small is beautiful at The Cellar Door, Newport's first micropub

The former librarian had long nurtured a dream of pulling pints behind his own bar, but was determined to stay true to the principle that 'small is beautiful'.

He just had to find the right property - and found it in the city's Clytha Park Road.

And 11 months on from the opening of The Cellar Door Real Cider and Ale House, Mr Tully is delighted with the speed at which it has become a firm favourite with drinkers.

"People seem to love the place, and we wouldn't be anywhere else. We've really hit the nail on the head here," he said.

"The Cellar Door is a community pub. People come out and support us hugely, and a lot of our customers are really much more than that - we count a lot of them as our friends."

Friendship is a key part of The Cellar Door's success, due in no small measure to its homely feel.

"People often say, 'this is like my front room'. people feel comfortable here," said Mr Tully.

"There's no music, except when we have our live music nights. There are no slot machines, there's no television.

"Invariably what happens is that people come in and we get talking, and if there's someone else here, they will often join in the conversation.

"When we move off, by then they are talking, they've connected. The number of friendships that have been made here in the past year is unbelievable."

The Cellar Door, with the likes of restaurant Meat - two doors down - the Rogue Fox coffee house next door, and the Holy Cheesus takeaway shop on the nearby railway bridge inject welcome independent spirit into this part of the city.

Popping into Meat for a coffee whilst hunting for premises, Mr Tully was alerted by the proprietor that the County Computers shop two doors up, was available.

"I first saw the window - beautiful, a bit like Dickens, the Olde Curiosity Shoppe. I saw a video walk-through and I said I'd take it straightaway," said Mr Tully.

After securing planning permission, there followed a major nine-month renovation project to transform a shop into a pub.

"I'd worked selling cider around small festivals and the like for eight years or so, and I'd seen how micropubs were doing, places like Arvon Ales in Llandrindod Wells," said Mr Tully, who lived then in Talgarth near Hay-on-Wye.

"It was a dream to have my own pub, specifically a micropub.

"This is all about real cider and real ale. We have different things in every week, and we tend to stay with small producers - and as local as possible - because we are small ourselves."

The Cellar Door also hosts exhibitions by local artists and stages live music on Sundays, and soon, Thursdays.

"The live music is about talented local artists too, and it's snowballed," said Mr Tully.

The pub has also scooped its first award, being named as CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) Welsh Cider Pub of the Year.

"CAMRA has been really supportive, just like the people who keep coming back to drink here," said Mr Tully.

"It (the pub) could really have been anywhere.

"We didn't know Newport, but my wife (Karen, now also a mainstay at The Cellar Door), worked as a solicitor in Bristol, so it seemed a good place, though she's now packed that in.

"But it was definitely the right decision to come here. Newport is a great city."