Sheffield City Council have granted licensing permission to transform an Ecclesall Road shop into Sheffield’s first alcohol-free bar and restaurant, at a recent sub-licensing committee meeting.
The new venture, called Seven Seas Restaurant, will take over from pop-up plant shop Plant Parenthood, which according to their Insta page has plans to move to Abbeydale Road.
To argue the case for the new venue, business partners Ata Azadi, who has previously worked in a top restaurant in Tehran, was joined by Jwan Butimar, the owner who ran Plant Parenthood, and Rob Collins, the general manager.
Plant Parenthood and Seven Seas Restaurant co-owner Jwan Butimar
Explaining their plans, Mr Collins said: “We are trying to offer something different for Sheffield that doesn’t exist.
“Generally, if you go to any bar they will have two or three mocktails that are just fruit in a glass. What we are trying to provide is a safe, calm environment for different communities to come and try something they may not have had before. As an example, I’ve created something like an Aperol spritz, it tastes exactly the same as a real Aperol. So, we won’t be having drunk people but we will still have a high level of product.
“I’ve spent weeks and months researching this. Most alcohol-free products pose as alcohol free, but when you actually do the research it’s up to 0.5… but we are going as a full alcohol-free venue. There are some places in London but it doesn’t exist in Sheffield so we will create something new and unique and amazing to give back to the community.
“Otherwise people of different religions go to venues and they don’t agree with it or they don’t want their children to be sat next to people who are three bottles of wine in. So what we are offering is something really special.”
The council have granted permission with conditions that required them to fix issues with the bathrooms and ramp to make them compliant with building regulations after the health protection service objected.
Back in November 2021, we spoke to Jwan Butimar about Plant Parenthood and you can read more about that here.
