Opening date announced for Tyneside Bar Café

Tyneside Bar announced on the 28th July that its ambitious new project on Newcastle’s Pilgrim Street – The Tyneside Bar Café – will open its doors to the public on Friday 22^nd August. The new Bar Café will be a welcome addition to the city centre not only for cinema goers but for those shopping, working and socialising in town. The venue aims to create a flexible and relaxed experience, offering customers everything from a place to stop for a drink or a quick snack to somewhere to enjoy lunch or dinner with friends. As well as the food and drink on offer, the Bar Café will also present a range of film screenings and events in a cabaret-style space within the bar. Entertainment planned includes a free weekly screening of a cult film, DJ nights, live music, a regular quiz night and other film and music related events. Head Chef Tom Adlam, who has devised the menus and will be heading up the kitchen cut his chef’s teeth in Michelin-starred establishments including Chewton Glen but discovered his love of un-fussy food using the best ingredients whilst working with legendary chef Andy Bunn at Café Sopra in Australia. For the last 9 years he’s been a fixture in Terry Laybourne’s Café 21 kitchen and now will be letting loose his own signature style in the kitchen of the new Tyneside Bar Café. Tom has been meeting with local suppliers (including Charlotte’s Butchery, French Oven, Hodgson Fish and Ken Holland to name a few) to get his hands on the best quality ingredients for the new menu. The menu that Tom has been devising for the Bar Café offers something for everyone, and every budget, from house made savoury popcorn to soups and salads, a house burger and the Tyneside’s own cinema Hot Dog (created in collaboration with Charlotte’s Butcher’s of Gosforth) with prices ranging at an average of £7 - £12. The new Tyneside Bar Café will be open from 8.00am Monday – Friday and 10am on Sundays, offering drinks and snacks, breakfast, weekend brunches, fast or lazy lunches, dinners and suppers. Says Head Chef Tom Adlam: “At the heart of Tyneside Bar Café will be the same great service and welcome that the Tyneside Cinema is known for along with a really great food offer. It's really important to us that people use the bar cafe how they'd like to. We will be offering breakfasts, weekend brunches, lunches, dinners and everything in between.  Customers can use the bar café  as part of a visit to see a film or completely independently. You can just pop in for a drink or a coffee, you can have bar snacks, share some plates with friends, grab a sandwich or salad at lunchtime or come in the evenings for a relaxed dinner. Our focus is simple but imaginative dishes made to an exceptionally high standard. We've also got some film related food and snacks which we're really excited about.” Also heading up the new venture are Managing Director Catherine Kersey, formerly of Nottingham’s independent Broadway Cinema, and Bar Manager Chris Kippax, who was previously House Manager at Tyneside Cinema. The trio will lead a team of newly appointed catering and bar staff, including three apprentice chefs from Newcastle College’s award-winning Hospitality Apprenticeship programme, and two Front of House staff from the College’s sector based work academy. The project is part of a £1.3million redevelopment of the iconic Grade II listed building, which also includes the opening of The Gallery, a new digital exhibition space for artists’ moving image and independent film on the Cinema’s third floor. For more information and films about the redevelopment, please visit www.tynesidebarcafe.co.uk.