Phantom & Friends, V1!

by Phantom Brewing February 15, 2021

To kick off our “Phantom & Friends” series of collaborative boxes (we say series, which might seem presumptuous considering it’s only week one, but we do want to keep this going!), we’ve teamed up with two businesses we know and love. We’ve worked with 7Bone Burger already on two brilliant collaborations for their restaurants, and we’ve seen Make Merry Events spring out of a lockdown with a new business and a load of fantastic promise.

We took the time to chat to each business and have a little Q&A with them, so you can hear what they all have to say about their involvement in the first part of this project.

Make Merry Events is a mobile cocktail bar/cocktail delivery service founded in 2020 by Kate & James after one too many lockdown margaritas.

Kate’s interest started from an early age, hosting her “poor friends” for dinner parties every weekend and forcing them to drink strange mixes of fruit juices in sugar coated glasses. James has always been interested in street food, even looking into getting his own taco stand a long time ago. Both have always been keen to experiment and try out different drinks, leading to a lot of hangovers, but some genius concoctions.

It’s important to note that they’re about more than just tasty beverages, though – their mission is rooted in delivering quality service and a personal touch for all their events. They pride themselves on bringing good times to people’s doorsteps, and make the effort to source local and environmentally friendly produce wherever possible.

Did someone say… pina?

“Forever the drink that makes me think of sunshine, and I think we all need a bit of that right now! The set includes all the ingredients to shake up your very own classic pina colada!”

Did someone say… beer?

“Did someone say… yes please.”

We also had a chat with Michelle from 7Bone, who joined the company just over 4 years ago after the opening of their Bournemouth site. 7Bone have been running for around 7 years now (although they’ve celebrated their 7^th birthday a few times already, because why not?), founded by Matt, and have 9 sites, spreading up from the South Coast, with big ambitions to keep on growing.

One of the main reasons we love 7Bone so much is the fact that they, like us, have a proper mixed bag of personalities, and absolutely love a good laugh. Their focus on poking a bit of fun at the world we live in and being consistently tongue-in-cheek in their brand and image has led to a range of specials and menus named after in-jokes and references to funny videos that they’ve been forwarding to eachother within the team.

While they don’t take themselves too seriously, what they do take seriously is the quality of the food. They’ve been using the same butcher since day one, based near Southampton, and a select baker with bespoke recipes that they’ve honed and developed, with everything made to order for maximum freshness.

The chilli dogs in the box are their famous “Franks a Weiner” from their main menu, with pork weiners by Big Apple Hotdogs, in house Texan chilli, cheese sauce, onions, jalapenos, and served in their homebaked classic buns. There are instructions included, and a very serious educational video on their Instagram page if you’re more of the visual learning persuasion.

7Bone have made it through the last year with rigid covid compliance, and fortunate enough to have a small enough team that they’ve been able to change tack and adapt to new regulations fairly quickly, with click and collect orders running continuously from all their sites. We can’t wait to try all the specials they’ve been sitting on once they reopen, and to enjoy seeing them do what they do best with whatever new excitement may be down the pipeline.

And one last question for Michelle – did someone say… beer?

“Yes! Yeah, I’ll have one!”

We’ve selected these businesses because, quite simply, we absolutely love them and we want you to as well. We hope you enjoy your chilli dogs and delicious cocktails, and we reckon they’re the perfect accompaniment to “Crush”, our newest, freshly canned Strata pale ale. Light, crushable, hazy and soft, a bit of summer in a glass. If you’ve not nabbed yours yet, head over to the shop and do so now.

(Included in the box, as well, we’re telling you early what we’ve got in store for next week! As if you needed more convincing…)