Seven Bro7hers x HandleBar
HandleBar, 236 Wilmslow Rd, Fallowfield, Manchester M14 6LE
Robyn Gilmour
Saturday 14 December 2024
This article is from
Love Your Pub
issue 112
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If this were a romantic comedy, the ‘meet-cute’ between Seven Bro7hers and Handlebar wouldn’t exactly set the screen alight; bar owner Steve had picked up a couple of cans from a wholesaler, was impressed with the quality and got in touch with Seven Bro7hers sales manager David Penny. Not exactly When Harry met Sally, yet the love affair that has blossomed from this apparently stony ground has been a joy to behold.
“I was immediately impressed by Steve’s vision,” gushes David. “The bar was a vibrant space, perfect for his target audience, namely students eager to explore craft beer. It was clear that he wasn’t just running a bar; he was building a community. Steve is introducing our beer to a whole new generation of craft beer lovers, and we’re excited to see these students become lifelong fans.”
Handlebar’s story began when Steve’s friend, who owns a bike shop, said "if I ever had the money, I'd open a cafe/bar with a bike shop in it and call it Handle Bar... we laughed.” As Steve tells it, they kept laughing as their daydreaming became more detailed, until eventually it resembled something like a business plan. Three months later, at the peak of the pandemic, Steve had a Start Up Business Loan, and by the end of 2021, he’d signed a lease on a long-abandoned, derelict venue.
“People have stayed with me from opening with just five old rickety tables on our ground floor, with broken windows, bare walls, bar equipment that was 20 years old and on its last legs,” says Steve. “Each semester we would close when the students went home, and I'd work on refurbishing another part of the building, they'd return and support us again and bit by bit we grew together.”
Steve says that reopening this September was the first time the bar looked like the space he’d dreamed of, with new custom seating and tables, another refurbishment to the decor, and no traces of the previous tenant’s furniture and equipment. “We're now in year three and thriving, with a fantastic looking venue which is regularly full to a capacity of 200 people across both floors,” says Steve. “Having worked every minute of every shift for the previous two years, the hard work has finally paid off.”
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