Bar-in-a-bank plan for former HSBC – with drinks and a cash machine

A RESTAURANT boss who owns a number of popular Anglesey eateries now wants to open a bar in a former island bank.

Robert Charlton (pictured) owns the Pier House Bistro and Tredici Italian Restaurant in Beaumaris, and the Hydeout Southern Bar-B-Q & Smokehouse in Menai Bridge.

This year, he also bought the former Castle Bakery premises - setting up Ruby Mae’s American Diner.

Now he plans to start a bar in Menai Bridge after taking on the former HSBC on the high street, which closed last year.

Having already restored the cash machine, the development would create around 10 jobs and he hopes to open by the end of November

He said: “We are opening a bar to complement the restaurants in Menai Bridge and to cater for the diverse range of customers now visit- ing Menai for its pubs and restaurants. “We will be open in the daytime to offer quality coffees and cake and the evening will be for meeting friends and trying our cocktails. We will have a large range of gins and local ales, importantly, we have brought .back the cash machine to the village, which was wanted by the residents. “This will be my sixth business here and we employ about 90 people. I am committed to growing our communities, using local produce and increasing the number of jobs available locally.”

A planning application to change the use of the old HSBC site has been submitted to Anglesey county council by agent Cadnant Planning.

The eating-out scene in the town has boomed in recent years with Dylan’s, Sosban and The Old Butchers, which has a Michelin star, and Hydeout among those opening.