Burger chain to launch outlet at former pub site
‘IT WAS LIKE A MADE-UP PLACE FROM A FILM.
A BURGER chain with 10 restaurants across the UK is set to open its doors on the former site of a Cardiff pub.
Fat Hippo plans to serve the “best burgers in Cardiff ” and will open on Church Street on the site of Bub’s Bar and Kitchen, a craft beer bar that announced last week it would be closing its doors at the end of January 2022.
Originally established in Newcastle in 2010 by founder and managing director Mike Phillips, who wrote his business plan whilst still at university, Fat Hippo has since opened restaurants across the UK including Edinburgh, Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool.
Cardiff is the first Welsh restaurant for the chain and the company has posted the following message on their website: “Find the best burgers in Cardiff.”
“England? Smashed it. Scotland? A big fat tick. Wales? It’s about time it’s your turn!
“We can’t wait to bring our full menu of signature beef and boneless buttermilk chicken patties to our brand new restaurant on Church Street next year.
“Cardiff, be warned. You’ve not tasted byrgyrs like this before!”
Fat Hippo’s menu includes over 15 different beef, buttermilk chicken and vegan burgers such as the PB+JJ, which comprises of a double beef patty with American cheese, chunky peanut butter, bacon jam and smoked chilli jello, as well as the signature Fat Hippo burger with American cheese, smoked bacon, chorizo, onion rings and Fat Hippo sauce.
The burger restaurant will take the place of Bub’s, a well-loved craft beer pub, which opened in 2018 and last week announced that it would be closing its doors in January 2022.
Posting the announcement on Twitter, Bub’s said: “It’s with a heavy heart that we announce we’re closing this coming January.”
It added: “Alas. The city will see another independent business shut its doors.”
In response to the news of Bub’s closure, there was an outpouring of disappointment on social media.
One commenter said: “Devastating. The best bar in Cardiff. So sad. Big love to all.”
Another person added: “Gutted to hear this awful news. You’ll be sorely missed. Really feel for you all.”
Chris Rowlands, who runs Bub’s, told the Echo that the pub’s lease had been ended because the building’s owner had activated a break clause. This allows either the landlord or the tenant to terminate a lease during the contract term.
YOU COULD ALMOST FEEL THE HISTORY...’
AMAZING footage shows what’s left of an abandoned coal mine in south Wales.
Cwm Colliery, in Beddau, near Pontypridd, closed its door for the last time on November 6, 1986, when Britain was facing a period of mass unemployment and a time of upheaval.
Around 800 men lost their livelihood that day - many would leave their towns and villages to find work, while others retired.
What was once the backbone of its community and further afield, the Cwm Colliery site now sits as a testament to Wales’ industrial past.
The photographer, Ollie Wells, who lives in nearby Llanharan said he had a keen interest in the local mining history.
“I’m originally from the Midlands,” he said.
“But then I moved to Wales when I went to university where I met my now wife and we never moved back.
“We went to the University of Glamorgan, as it was back then, in Treforest – at one time a prominent mining area.
“We live now next to an old opencast mining site. So over the years, I’ve become more and more interested in mining history, and especially the technology side of things.”
After joining a few Facebook groups, avid-photographers and historians online began sending Ollie recommendations on interesting sites and locations to film and fly, including Cwm Colliery.
Ollie said: “Someone mentioned the colliery, and I went to have a look.
“I was gobsmacked – it was like a made-up place from a film.
“You could almost feel the history. Every window, every piece of metal, duct, pipe and step tells a story. It’s amazing.
“It has to be one of my favourite sites to fly and film. I always capture something new that I hadn’t seen before.”
The photographer believes that the building should be preserved as it is.
“It would be amazing if it were preserved, but I think it may be too late, as much of it has already been pulled down,” he added.
“But it’s fascinating to see, and there are not many sites like this around anymore, that give the true sense of scale of the operations that happened on the surface.
“An idea we discussed in one of the groups was to make it an official drone flying space, but that seems unlikely.”