Bar to bring jobs boost as boss eyes summer launch
WHEN it was announced in March 2020 that Gin & Juice will be coming to Mumbles, the team behind the popular drinks bar were targeting an opening date of June 2020.
This date was then pushed back to autumn. At the time October 2020 seemed like a safe bet – particularly as, when the pandemic first hit, many of us assumed that things would slowly start getting back to normal towards the end of the year.
Gin & Juice co-founder, Stephen Barker, was then aiming for an opening in spring 2021, but things haven’t quite gone to plan.
The bar, which has branches in Cardiff, Bristol and Cheltenham, is moving into the site in Oyster Wharf in Mumbles formerly occupied by La
Parrilla. Speaking in December 2020, Mr Barker said the toughest thing is the unknown and the cost of having to learn, the chop and change and adapting.
“It’s the not knowing that’s been difficult,” he said last year.
Mr Barker now says the bar is 80% complete and is aiming for a summer opening, hopefully in June, with recruitment starting in a couple of weeks, creating 60 jobs.
“We are just about to start a huge recruitment drive to generate a load of well-trained good jobs in the area for aspirational young people who want to learn to be the best and work with the best.
“There will be stuff on Linkedin, Indeed and social media starting from mid-april so keep your eyes on it. That starts in the next couple of weeks with the intention of
opening in June, we are quite mindful that we don’t want to open with loads of restrictions in place.
“It’s a roof top and lots of fresh air and we want to be able to use inside, I know that will happen in May but if we have to wait
a bit longer for restrictions to be more or less lifted all together that would be the aim really.
“If say late June there was no restrictions we would wait for that, if it’s going to be August and nothing is lifted then we will have to open with whatever the restrictions are in place,” the cofounder of the bar said.
Mr Barker is hoping the bar will be an iconic destination in Swansea.
It will be open from morning until late every day serving breakfast, brunch and lunch into the evening for supper with more than 450 curated gins on the rooftop.
There will also be a Rum & Fizz Bar on the mezzanine serving cocktails in a ‘secret garden’ as well as a Coffee Barker espresso bar on the street serving organic coffee and handmade cakes.
“Gin & Juice Bristol is entirely in the spirit of our Mumbles address at Oyster Wharf. However, in Mumbles, just imagine it’s on a rooftop, overlooking the ocean and is a huge space; it’s going to be very special indeed,” he added.