Charles Wells has expanded its French arms, John Bull Pub Company, with an urban craft beer bar run as a pop-up.
Its tenth French site is housed in a former café and has been dubbed DNA @ Le Chabi. It was earmarked for a refurbishment to transform it into a traditional English pub. However delays in gaining planning permission led to the company taking a change of tack.
The company describes the venue as an “edgy, contemporary bar” with eleven draught beers and ciders, an extensive bottled beer range supplemented by wines, spirits, cocktails and soft drinks on offer.
Ed Robinson, Communications and Marketing Manager at John Bull Pub Company said: “We wanted to turn the delays we were facing as part of the French planning process into an opportunity. While awaiting the necessary permissions, we decided to trial a completely new concept for us in France and create a quirky, contemporary pop-up bar.
“DNA @ Le Chabi has been incredibly popular, it created a lot of intrigue locally and we were packed on the opening night. Although we’ve only been open just over a month we’ve been trading really well and if this continues we’ll be considering making it a permanent fixture for Bordeaux with the possibility of rolling out across other French cities in future”.
