Suds and Soda brings weekly beer and cheese nights to Derby

A beer and cheese night in Derby is championing food and drink products from two of the city’s popular independent businesses.

Suds & Soda is a beer store and tasting room on Friar Gate. It is the organisers of a weekly beer and cheese night, fondly known as Funk & Fromage which celebrates produce from a local delicatessen Milk & Honey alongside its craft beer.

On the night, cheese, crackers, and bread are set out on plates.

People can then buy beer and send their taste buds on a tantalising journey as they nibble cheese, pick at delicious deli produce and wash it down with a range of beers including Lambic.

There is no charge to eat the cheese, however, people are encouraged to buy drinks from the bar.

Lee from Suds & Soda said: “We usually put the cheeseboard out between 6pm and 7pm, depending on when customers begin to arrive.

“There’s no cost to the customer, but obviously we expect that people coming in for the free cheese will buy a few drinks.”

Here is a scrumptious platter from a previous tasting evening that went down a treat.

The beer and cheese evenings started in 2022 which were originally designed to increase footfall in Suds & Soda.

The enterprising Lee, who saw the success firsthand of other cheese nights at previous places of work, decided to try ‘something different.’

He said: “I wanted to host a weekly event early on in the week to try and get a few more people through the door.

“I’ve worked in places that hosted weekly cheese nights in the past and it always brought a few people in, nothing major but enough to make it worthwhile.

“I wanted our cheese night to be a bit different so I thought we’d offer discounted sour/lambic beer during our Funk & Fromage nights.

“This type of beer is often said to have a funky aroma and I wanted to give the event a cool name that also tied-in with the name of the bar, which is how Funk & Fromage was born.”

When is the next beer and cheese night at Suds & Soda Derby?

The event is set to run every Monday and the next one is on October 30 at the Suds & Soda Friar Gate location - perfect for a Halloween treat.

Writing on a social media post the organisers said: “Funk & Fromage, our weekly cheese night is back. We have a great selection of delicious cheese supplied to us by the fabulous Milk & Honey Deli, as well as various breads, crackers, and chutneys available for you to gorge and we’re also giving 10% discount on our range of tasty Lambics - the perfect liquid accompaniment! Starts at 6pm - See you there, cheese heads!”

Address: Suds & Soda, Friary Works, 119 Friar Gate, Derby DE1 1EX

For more information about the event visit Suds & Soda Facebook page by clicking here.