CZECH brewer Budweiser Budvar celebrated its long association with a Glasgow pub this month by refurbishing the outlet’s ‘antique’ Budvar font.
The font, which is believed to be the oldest dispensing draught Budvar in the UK, was installed in Merchant City pub Babitty Bowster in 1989, where it has functioned continuously for 25 years.
Budvar’s Scottish sales boss, Jonathan Barnes, was joined for the unveiling of the restored font by Belhaven sales manager Kevan Makin, who dealt with Babitty Bowster owners the Lauries when he worked at Budvar over a decade ago.
“I managed to talk Gareth [Laurie] into letting me take it away [to refurbish], which took some doing,” said Barnes.
“I’ve got an engineer down in Newcastle who said he would be able to polish it up and refurb it. My father-in-law re-varnished the base and then we put all the new equipment in and attached a new ceramic tap handle and gold font on the tap, to make it look new but old.”
