David King, the Newcastle-based entrepreneur who last year sold his leisure business Fluid Group, has told M&C Report he plans to add more “daytime and evening food-driven” sites to its new venture Bar Hound.
Bar Hound has taken a lease with Star Pubs & Bars on LYH in Newcastle, which is to revert to its original name City Tavern following a £250,000 joint investment by the landlord and lessee. The two-storey venue will offer locally sourced home cooked food plus coffee and cask ale.
King told M&C Report: “I’ve been in the trade all my adult life and trends change, and the trend certainly is going towards more food-led outlets. Newcastle city centre is quite well provided by nice eateries and gastropubs but if you’re a shopper in Newcastle, you’ve got quite a hike to go down to the likes of Browns, Las Iguanas and Jamies Italian. It’s not exactly right on the doorstep, whereas this is.”
He added: “The footfall’s fantastic but it’s been run as quite a tired vertical drinking bar for quite some time, and it just needs to ring the changes now.”
Asked if he planned to open more venues under Bar Hound, King said: “I don’t think we’ll stop at one.” Fluid Group ran 11 sites when it was sold last year and King said he wanted Bar Hound to stay smaller, “more intimate and more manageable”.
King said he had “no desire to do the late night bar scene at all”. “My idea of this bar, and anything else that we look at, would be daytime and evening food driven.”
Regarding the tenure of sites, he said: “Obviously it’s nice to get hold of a freehold if the right freehold comes along, but we’d look at anything really.”
Like Fluid Group, Bar Hound also incorporates a design service that works with restaurants.
