Blog post by Tara Stagman
So how did we go from an empty shell to an award-winning wine bar in the centre of Harrogate?
I'm not going to pretend it's been easy! There's been drama, many delays, a lot of pigeons, some rather fabulous people all doing their thing, great teamwork, some hilarity and a few tears along the way. It has been quite an incredible journey and I'm beyond proud of the whole team as we celebrate our new title of "Newcomer of the Year" presented at the Harrogate Hospitality and Tourism Awards 2026!
So, now feels like a good time to share some behind the scene tales and pictures that show just how we got there! For part one, read on...
As a team, we've been bringing wines we've carefully selected and truly believe in to the Harrogate and Wetherby area for over 15 years now. And just over two years ago, encouraged by our friends, we thought it would be a good idea to bring a little taste of the continent to the centre of Harrogate in the form of a wine bar unlike anything else in Yorkshire. A place where people can wander in, and take refuge in a relaxed yet interesting setting, enjoying fabulous wine, remarkable whisky, local beer and other drinks, food platters, chilled music and get chatting to friends, old and new.
I'll start with where the idea germinated - we knew our customers loved it when we did pop-up events outside our stores on Leeds Road, Harrogate and Hastings Court, Collingham and we really loved sharing our wine knowledge and building friendships.
Here's a well known sight along Leeds Road, with Jamie and Paul serving up a treat to visitors at our mini wine bar.
So one day, early in 2024, in a rare moment sitting and enjoying a tasty light lunch down the road in Starling, we came up with the idea of opening a wine bar / shop in the centre of Harrogate. We were pretty excited about it even though we didn't have much bar experience!
The perfect spot came up soon after in the building previously occupied by Shuropody on Oxford Street, not too far from our friends at the Little Ale House and Major Toms, just round the corner from the Disappearing Chin and almost backing onto our favourite Indian restaurant, Shalimar! This is probably the best "before" picture I've found of Jamie and Paul inside the unit.
Being very close to the Harrogate theatre, I was inspired by the idea of a red curtain theme for our window vinyls, and thinking we'd be open soon, included the promise of "opening soon". Here you can see Edward and Jonathan in front of the new premises.
The former tenants left the building in a sorry state and major work was needed to get it ready. The demolition was pretty brutal and structural changes were needed. This took somewhat longer than the few months initially expected! A view inside the ground floor space shows the stripped back shell, here with the original ceiling and stairs still in place.
Over a year later, the red curtains were still closed over the windows of 20 Oxford Street! However, the pigeons thought this was wonderful and tried to move into the building if a window was left slightly ajar and they certainly started hanging out anywhere they could perch. I worked with a lovely pigeon rescuer lady from Beaky Finders who helped us get them out of the building safely and gradually reduce their stronghold, and move them on to pastures new.
We were planning our next move carefully, and working with the fabulous, if somewhat eccentric, art collector and designer Mark Hinchliffe, who is well known locally for his role in converting the Chapel on Grove Road. Over time we realised just how uplifting spending time with Mark would prove to be as he faced personal challenges but remained upbeat and enthusiastic, and always managed to find the most amazing things at auctions around the country for us.
He came up with the theme of "Oscar Wilde's wine library" with a bit of European wine bar thrown in for good measure. A place that feels as if it's always been there, but inviting in a contemporary way. Here you can see Mark along with Paul and Edward outside the front of the bar with the phrase "coming soon" still clearly visible!
Well, building demolition and refurbishment is never simple, it seems. The upper floors were removed and there were no stairs from the cellar up to the first floor for months - access was only via a ladder. I had constant battles with strangers parking in the space at the rear of the building, preventing access for the builders. Cones are clearly not enough of a deterrent when it comes to people wanting to leave their car somewhere overnight!
I donned my hi-vis and found out a lot about work on site; it was amazing to watch things starting to take shape. The skill of the joiners installing the new floors was incredible. Just climbing up the scaffolding to have a look got my heart racing and they were passing these massive floor joists up through the centre of the building to the first and second floor! Seeing the original wooden floor and the stone wall at the rear exposed and in good condition was really exciting, especially when we decided to keep these features on display in the bar.
There were arguments for and against keeping original features, and this extended to the shop frontage too. The construction firm, NLG, were helpful in working with us to keep what we could and this included the timber frame of the shop front - we just painted it black, oh, and replaced the glazing to bring it up to modern standards!
We had many a late night, and warmed up and schemed over some fantastic curries a short distance away with our friend Jamil at Shalimar.
As we moved through 2025, things were starting to move on at more of a pace, and we visited the site with team members to plan our next move in more detail. In the picture below, Simon is standing in what is now the doorway to the kitchen and Paul is in the area that is now the gents' WC.
Then came the exciting part for the development of the bar as we got into the nitty gritty of all the details. Rich and Fran who had recently opened Over & Above Cocktail Bar gave us great tips and we shared stories with Rich from The Little Ale House who was also busy developing Little Ale House, York. We called in our pals from Rooster's Brewery to install our beer lines and decided that, although it was now November 2025, we would aim to open before Christmas 2025!
The race was on! Weekends and late working, with experienced tradesmen with various skills turning up to do their bit to make this happen. This part was the most stressful, with constant questions about important details, and a lot going on all at once. (That, plus needing to maintain a high level of service at our retail shops so everyone could get the wines they needed for gifts and celebrations.) My strongest memories were of gritty finger nails and a bustling building site at all times, except lunchtime, of course!
Then came the time to install the bar, and, more importantly, test it! We let NLG main man Lewis have the very first sip of Easy Going Assassin IPA as he and his team had been pulling out all the stops that week.
Meanwhile, Mark was busy seeking out wonderful things to bring interest and intrigue to the space - you can see the beautiful, varied antique wardrobe door fronts used to clad the bar, with a nicely honed marble top.
On the outside, Paul and his team at One Nine Signs created and installed our brand new signage.
The next big thing we worked on was our wall of wine - we wanted floor to ceiling sturdy shelves that could hold a really large selection of wines and take some extra tall bottles too for magnums and space for fridges to keep the fizz and whites nicely chilled! And obviously we didn't want any risk of wines falling on anyone. It was quite a labour of love (even as the pressure picked up and the opening deadline loomed) for the excellent joiner, Al, who built these for us. Then Mark spent hours staining them!
Once the wine shelves were in, with less than 10 days to spare, it was time for Mark to work his magic on the interior, with a little help from the wine team and friends as well as the rest of the tradesmen! Just imagine any good episode of DIY SOS, where everyone is moving like crazy and you'll get a sense of the energy!
Before I go on, I have a lot of photos to sort through ready for the next instalment - keep an eye out for my next blog to see the magic unfold.
