Beds & Bars, the bars-meets-hostels operator, could rollout its Tree House cider bar format to other sites and possibly to standalone units in the future, M&C Report has learnt.
The Tree House opened last week in a first floor room at Belushi’s in London’s Covent Garden, offering “cider served in 100 ways”.
Venue manager Mark Vaughn described the response to the bar as “incredible”, attracting locals and tourists alike. It received 200 likes on Facebook in a day.
“With upcoming highlights like our cider festival and all of our suppliers coming in bi-weekly to host tasting events we have an ever evolving bar that’s different on every visit. We are starting to get enquiries regarding business functions and team building sessions where we will guide groups thought the world of cider from harvest to the pint glass.”
He added: “At present we are trialing the concept here in Covent Garden. If the formula is a success then it’s a brand we can easily roll out to other sites and even independent solo bars in future.”
The cider range includes three on draught, five ‘bag in the box’ products, and 12 cider cocktails made five different ways. There are 25 bottled ciders, three cider whiskeys, three cider wines, three cider brandies and one cider vodka.
Vaughn said: “We chose to open a cider bar for a number of reasons. In recent years the boom in cider sales has been huge, growing year on year more than anyone anticipated, showing us there was a gaping hole in the market for a bar to utilise that boom.
“The ice bar was a big inspiration too, an event bar that people go to for an experience not just a drink and leave with stories to tell.
“Giving that the size of our upstairs is very limited we knew it would not be about packing the place out, rather meeting and greeting customers in a relaxed environment and sharing our experience with them.”
