Paul Kinsey is the man behind The Viper Rooms and MOKO in Harrogate – two late night venues that ran very successfully for many years.
The latest opening is on John Street in Harrogate, taking the former Pitcher and Piano bar, and re-inventing it as an Irish bar.
Paul Kinsey said:
Marstons asked us if we were interested in taking over, what was then Pitcher and Piano, as it no longer fitted their corporate brand.
We had been looking at, but they wanted us to move really quickly, but they wanted to call it the Harlow. That didn’t really work as there was already a Harlow pub in the area, and the hashtags and URL’s were largely already taken.
We already had the Four Leaf as a developed brand, and Marstons agreed to us putting that brand in. The plan is to have four over the next 12-months, and we are just about to sign things for one in Sheffield.
There are a lot of bars in Harrogate, and we wanted something that would give people a night out, good entertainment, really good food – a place to go to, rather than popping in for a quick drink, a meeting place.
We wanted to do a modern Irish bar, a bar that would look much like a bar that you would see today in Dublin. With the soul, entertainment and vibe of an Irish bar.
Paul Kinsey said:
It is designed to be intentionally casual, there’s no formality.
We wanted to create a concept that when you walk in, you feel homely, you feel relaxed.
We opened on the 8 March, so we had a full weekend of trading, and then St Patrick’s weekend. It has been really busy since the off.
The feedback we have had has been fantastic, there will always be some teething problems, but people have viewed it with some affection. In the vast majority of cases, people have seen what we have been trying to achieve.
But the best experiences in Irish bars in Dublin are because they are relaxed and friendly, and that is what it is meant to be.
