Two of the city’s most popular bar owners are joining forces to open a new city-centre venue in Orchard Square.
Mike Pomranz, who runs The Cider Hole, Sheffield’s only dedicated ciderhouse and tap room; and Matt Beety, who owns popular Abbeydale Road micro pub The Bear, have announced plans to take over the former home of shoe shop, Schuh, to create a unique city-centre bar, cider distillery and retail space in time for summer.
Combining their knowledge and experience, the pair plan to create a venue that has at its heart a craft beer, cider and wine bar, which opens up onto the square. The bar will boast a rotating cast of 20 hand-selected, craft beer tap-lines, as well as the city’s most comprehensive cider list, and an unusual fruit wine list featuring rhubarb and blackberry wines, English blueberry wine, cherry wines from Germany, and sparkling strawberry wines, all sourced through Mike’s import business.
There will also be room for a retail space offering takeaway beers from a carefully curated, diverse collection of independent breweries, and speciality coffees in the daytime, plus relevant fermentation-related products and merch, as well as vinyl records, which will be spun in the bar until 1am at weekends.
The Cider Hole’s fermenters are also being brought up from their current home in the Krynkl container development, so you’ll even be able to enjoy a pint of Mike’s Sheffield-based cider fresh from the source.
The Cider Hole’s chief apple-botherer Mike Pomranz, who moved from the Big Apple to Sheffield in 2016, told Exposed: “The Cider Hole has been great, but for me, I really wanted to be able to expand and offer a much bigger range of beverages. The idea was to create a more well-rounded bar that can appeal to a broader audience. A bar that doesn’t just do cider, so anyone can find something they like, but that still has cidermaking at the heart of the premises.”
This is how the venue looks now, and not Mike’s new album cover! Work to transform the space is due to begin soon
Matt added: “Mike came to me because, and I think he said, ‘I wants someone to do the beer, because I don’t want to do it!’ Obviously flattered, I said, let’s do it!
“But really, when Mike came to me with the idea, it was something I already wanted to do, and I can’t think of anyone I’d rather work on a joint project with than him. Mike will bring the cider and the wines, and I’ll be bringing the beer side of things, as well as a friendly Yorkshire accent!”
Both Mike and Matt opened their current venues around two-years ago and had previously discussed Matt’s desire to open a second premises as well as Mike’s plan to move to a new location. When Mike applied for, and received funding through the ReNew Project, a Sheffield City Council scheme that offered businesses and organisations the chance of a grant to transform empty shops and underused spaces in and around Fargate, Mike’s first thought was to hook up with Matt.
“It just made sense.” says Mike, “I keep these things in the back of my mind and am always full of crazy ideas of what could come together, and what could be a good, organic match.
“Mike jokes about handling the beer side of things because I don’t want to, but in reality, I have my hands so full, just managing what I manage on the cider and import side, that the irony is, despite the fact I come from a beer writing background, and am technically a beer expert, I haven’t dealt with beer that much in the past two years, so I’ve kind of lost track of what’s happening, to a certain extent.
“For this project, it was super important for me to have someone in charge of the beer that I could trust and worked well with. There’s not that many people in the city, but Matt fits that bill perfectly.”
“Our ethos’ are really aligned. It’s all about artisan and craft products – products that need a home. We want to be a destination bar that’s also a bar for everyone. The best bar in England, and if it’s also your local, that’s even better, right?”
Matt added: “I feel really excited about it. It’s going to be something that the city centre’s not got and I think that town does need a bit of a shot in the arm.
“There’s a lot of negative attitudes towards the city-centre at the minute, but this is an example of what the council is trying to do to get people to renew, for want of a better term, the city centre and turn these empty places into somewhere people want to go and enjoy themselves.”
Matt and Mike are hoping for a summer start for the new city-centre bar, which will initially open from 11am, five days a week . A name for the bar is yet to be finalised, but we’re pushing for Apples and Bears (geddit?). More details (including the name) to follow in the coming weeks.
