Forge Tavern

The Forge Tavern is a grungy little pub full of elderly men hidden away down one of the back streets of Digbeth, quite a while away from the city centre and not somewhere you would go out of your way to travel to. They don’t hold anything special or unique within this pub apart from the fact that you can smoking indoors and hire out the stage to throw gigs or just to jam out with your band and friends on perhaps maybe a standard weeknight. Other than these two fantastic pointers about this pub, I wouldn’t come here out of choice or would recommend it to anyone unless they are looking for a place to smoke indoors and play a bit of music. Again, I would only go to The Forge Tavern if there was either a gig or event being held within the venue.

The Forge Tavern is a small boozer on the corner of Fazeley Street, right in the heart of the industrial neighbourhood. It is a blues pub and by that I don’t mean it plays sounds from the Mississippi Delta I mean it is a haven for Birmingham City FC fans. Being completely neutral (football isn’t my bag) this is neither a plus nor a minus for me but I have friends who would rather die of thirst than go in there.
It is a typical old pub and is nice and cheap considering it’s location.
As well as being home for footie fans I have been there when there has been meetings of bikers with their Harleys all lined up outside. Things like this (or the hordes of lads that are sometimes hanging around outside there after home matches) could seem a little intimidating to passers by but I have drank in there many times and walked past it almost every day and I have never seen any trouble.

This is a proper Birmingham City Football club supporters pub, and as a non-​football fan, I thought I’d feel a little intimidated spending time in here. But actually, I’d misjudged the place completely.
When entering, I got the usual ‘how old are you’ by the bouncer, so I looked up, thinking there was going to be some moody scary man looking down at me. But in fact, he was smiling and has to be one of the friendliest doormen I’ve come across. He was talking to me and my mates for most of the night.
Drinks in here are very inexpensive, and rum and coke comes to £2.50, which is a pretty good price for me. As well as the bouncer, the staff and customers are also warm and inviting. I chatted to a great bunch of people in the patio garden area for quite some time. One thing I will say, the music isn’t really to my personal taste; It’s all chart pop music, which is enjoyed greatly by the rest of the regulars. You end up not caring about the music in the end anyway, because you want to join in with everybody else’s dancing and having a laugh.