Loveday Distillery in Penryn Opens Taproom Every Friday Evening

There is a place in Penryn where the drinks are poured straight from the still just metres from where you sit, the tables are imperfect, and the bottles are already open. And from now on, you can walk through its doors every Friday evening.

Loveday Distillery, the independent gin and rum producer based in Penryn on the south coast of Cornwall, has announced that its taproom is now open every Friday from 5pm to 9pm. No booking is needed. You just turn up.

A Friday night that feels like home

The weekly opening is being framed as a natural extension of what Loveday has always set out to do, which is to give people a reason to gather, linger, and enjoy good company. With drinks poured straight from the still and a weekly-changing food menu made with seasonal care, Friday evenings at the distillery are designed to feel less like a bar visit and more like being welcomed into someone’s home.

Visitors can drop in any Friday to taste Loveday’s range of gins, spiced rum and cocktails, alongside a menu of pintxos, sharing small plates and fresh focaccia. The food changes week to week with the seasons. The atmosphere, by the distillery’s own description, is relaxed and unpretentious, with evenings that have a habit of going on a little longer than planned.

“This is really just us doing what we’ve always wanted to do,” said Chloe and Daisy, founders of Loveday. “Open the doors, pour something good, put food on the table. We started Loveday because we wanted to make drinks worth sharing, and the taproom is the place where that actually happens. Come as you are. Stay as long as you like.”

From a kitchen table to a copper still

Loveday was founded in 2020 by childhood friends Chloe and Daisy, both former chefs and creatives, who found themselves asking a simple question during lockdown. Could they make a spirit they actually wanted to drink? Armed with a 1-litre still and what they describe as a wildly optimistic attitude, they set about creating a gin that tasted like the place they lived.

Sixty-three recipe iterations later, they landed on something that stopped them mid-sip. That recipe became Falmouth Dry Gin, still one of their bestsellers today, and the start of a distillery that has since grown to include four gins and a spiced rum. All are made in-house using fresh, foraged and seasonal botanicals, with no shortcuts and no artificial help.

A small distillery with a big shelf of awards

Since those early days, Loveday has earned a Gold Outstanding (98/100) from the International Wine & Spirits Competition, full gold awards from Taste of the West, Great Taste Award stars, and the distinction of being the only British, certified organic, made-from-scratch rum producer in the UK. Their gin also reached 44,000 doorsteps as Craft Gin Club’s Gin of the Month in August 2023.

They remain a small, independent, woman-owned distillery, still based in Penryn, still learning, and still happiest when the bottle is already open.

The details

Loveday Distillery’s taproom is open every Friday from 5pm to 9pm in Penryn, Cornwall. No booking is required, so you can just turn up. Food is a weekly-changing selection of pintxos, sharing boards and fresh focaccia, with Loveday gins and spiced rum made on site. More information is available on the Loveday Distillery website.