Two new hospitality ventures are hoping to boost evening trade in Barnet High Street - a cafe bar with a special line in cocktails and a pop-up bar offering locally brewed craft beers and real ale.
The Library Bar, near the junction with St Albans Road, is a cafe bar with a literary theme which is hoping to provide residents and visitors with the kind of venue usually found in central London.
“We now have on offer a unique line of cocktails which we’ve created especially for the Library Bar, each with a literary theme,” says proprietor Laura Cornelius.
“We are trying to bring something different to the High Street, offering customers a central London experience on their doorstep.”
At the other end of the High Street, at the junction with Moxon Street, New Barnet brewers Urban Alchemy have opened a pop-up bar in the Chipping Work Shop, formerly the showrooms of estate agents Foxtons.
“We’ve done pop-up bars before at Barnet Market and other events, but we are now offering our full range of beers four nights at week, from Thursday to Saturday,” said head brewer Matt Javes, who doubles up behind the bar.
“Urban Alchemy is really getting established since we started in December 2019. We had two of our beers on sale at the Great British Beer Festival at Olympia in August and we are gaining recognition across London.”
Laura Cornelius is keen for the Library Bar – which is a day-time cafe from Tuesday to Saturday and then stays open in the evenings on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays – to build on its literary theme.
Already a book group meets there each week – a day-time session when young mothers can bring along their babies and a separate an evening session.
“We already have 25 signed up to the book group. We’ve just been reading Olive Kitteridge, a novel by the American author Elizabeth Strout.”
Other innovations are a chess club and a breast-feeding class for new and expectant mothers – just two of the initiatives Laura would like to develop further.
The Library Bar’s literary themed cocktails are from a bespoke menu created by Max Bienkowski who started work at the bar in August. One of his creations is the Great Gats Bee, which has a Parisian twist, a cocktail with champagne, gin, citrus and home-made honey syrup.
Max is keen to build up his cocktail menu, perhaps with recipes that reflect some of Barnet literary associations: the esteemed diarist Samuel Pepys visited the historic Barnet physic well to drink the waters in 1664 and Charles Dickens’ visits to Barnet were said to have helped to inspire Oliver Twist who it is claimed met the Artful Dodger on the steps of the former Victoria Bakery.
Along at Urban Alchemy’s pop-up bar – which is open from 6 to 12 on Thursdays and Fridays and 2 to 12 on Saturdays and Sundays – there is steady demand for their regular brews, their most popular line, Beach Body Ready, a hazy pale ale, stout, and a session ale.
Head brewer Matt Javes – seen here with guest barman Etienne Trevayne – said that like all other brewers they were concerned at the rising cost for materials and energy.
“We are having to face increased prices for grain and hops – and a lot of the hops we use are from America, Australia, and New Zealand.
“The flavours we want do tend to come from New World hops, especially for our pale ales.”
Urban Alchemy, which is based in York Road, New Barnet, began as a home brewery and now with three directors, managing director Si Morley, engineer Neil Boscoe and head brewer Matt, is looking at possibilities for expansion.
Matt acknowledged that energy costs might become a critical factor. Each brew has to be boiled for an hour and half, then kept below 23 degrees to ferment, and chilled down when put into kegs or bottles.
All being well Urban Alchemy’s pop-up bar – which hopes to remain in the High Street until March or April next year – might soon be visited for a tasting session by the London Region of the Campaign for Real Ale – and hopefully a review in their publication, the London Drinker Magazine.
Matt recalled that Urban Alchemy’s first commercial customer in December 2019 was the Little Green Dragon in Green Lanes, Winchmore Hill, which has again been voted Pub of the Year by Enfield and Barnet CAMRA.
