Something to Spout about as town’s eatery reopens!
Brew House has had a makeover during lockdown and now hosts weddings too
A Much-loved venue is now open following lockdown – complete with a new makeover.
Spout Brew House is the home of tasty brunch and a wide range of drinks in Leek at the heart of the Staffordshire Moorlands.
The St Edward Street venue was treated to a lockdown makeover by owner Ruth Ford, which includes a refurbished garden and a refresh of the upstairs area.
Spout also hosted its very first small outdoor wedding in April too, which saw Ruth totally transform the newly refurbished garden into a romantic wonderland.
As well as a garden makeover, the upstairs of the venue has also had a revamp – and Spout has just applied for a licence to allow it to serve a selection of artisan gins, wines, spirits and craft beers upstairs in the evenings.
Ruth – who lives in Endon but is originally from Leek – said: “We’ve just had a bit of a general refresh.
“It wasn’t worth us opening up in lockdown. We don’t really have that kind of footfall where we are located.
“It’s also not what Spout is about. Spout is about coming inside and eating and meeting people, enjoying the ambience and atmosphere and socialising.
“Takeaway service isn’t the same. We have a really good relationship with lots of our customers, and it was horrible to have to turn them away and not be able to properly chat with them.
“We had lots of lovely messages throughout lockdown from people asking how we were doing and saying they were looking forward to us coming back.”
Now they are finally open in their full capacity, the Spout team can finally show new and returning customers how they have spruced up the venue.
Work has taken place on the outdoor garden area, and Ruth is also waiting on a licence for the new and improved upstairs room.
She said: “We’ve wanted to do the garden for quite a long time, and lockdown was the perfect opportunity to really work on it.
“It was full of rubble so we cleared it and had a look to see what we had out there, and now we’ve been able to double our capacity out there. We’ve restored it back to the original Georgian garden that it once was. We’ve found the original border and footpath, and we’ve used all the original features to enhance the feel of the venue.
“We’ve got some lovely eclectic seating from Odeon Antiques. We’d describe the style and design of Spout as quirky, maybe a bit industrial, but softened with different touches.
“We’ve got lovely flowers done by a friend of ours who does really nice arrangements.
“The upstairs room is designed a bit like a gentleman’s club, it really has that feel to it.
“It’s perfect for groups of six who want to come together, but also keep their distance, because we have lovely big sofas and there’s a lot more space.
“The whole building is licensed, apart
from the upstairs room, so we are just waiting on our additional licence for that so we can serve alcohol, but we are still able to welcome people in during the day.”
Spout Brew House held their very first wedding in April for a couple who found themselves without a venue at the last minute.
Ruth and her team transformed the garden into a magical wonderland – complete with floral decorations and fairy lights.
Ruth explained: “We did it as a favour really to someone we know.
“When we reopened back in April, their venue had let them down, so they wanted to come for breakfast and I asked if we could help.
“We did them a wedding for 15 people out in the garden, and it was absolutely stunning.”