Slater's invests £150k in city bar

Stafford-based Slater's Ale opened Slater's Bar in Queen Square on February 25.

The award-winning brewery has transformed three floors of a Grade II-listed building previously occupied by Costa Coffee into a craft ale bar.

The original features of the building, which it is leasing, have been restored while there is also an industrial feel throughout.

It is the brewery's only pub although the Slater family used to own The George Inn in Eccleshall and The Monkey, Crewe, both of which have been sold.

Director Vicki Slater said Slater's was offering a choice of 20 beers.

The 10 hand pumps offer five of Slater's own ales and a changing selection of guest ales, initially beers from local brewers. There are also be 10 craft keg lines.

The new pub has a capacity of 100 with the main bar on the ground floor and a bottled beer bar upstairs, which is available for private functions as well.

The directors of Slater's, which celebrated its 20th anniversary last year, held an invitation-only event to preview the pub on Wednesday night.

The family started out brewing at the George and moved to the brewery in St Alban's Road in Stafford in 2007.

Miss Slater said: "We plan to offer ales from all over the UK and overseas as well as our own beers." The Slater's range of ales includes Top Totty, Queen Bee, Haka, Green Hop, Premium and Emperor.

The brewery has recruited a team of 18 to run the new pub in the building which had been vacant since Costa closed in January last year. Before Costa the corner building was Lipton's Grocers Shop.

Wolverhampton City Council helped recruit staff for Slater's Craft Beer Bar, with more than 90 per cent of the workforce from the city.

Councillor John Reynolds, cabinet member for city economy, said: "We were delighted when Slater's chose to come to Wolverhampton. They have worked extremely hard to bring the building in Queen Square back to life and I am sure it will prove to be a popular venue at the heart of the city, complementing our regeneration plans.

"It is also great that the council has been able to help Slater's source the majority of its workforce from Wolverhampton. We very much value the presence of small and medium enterprises like this and the creative people behind them.

"These are the businesses that help give Wolverhampton its own identity and character."

Slater's supply pubs and clubs throughout the country with real ale and director Andrew Slater who runs the brewery said: "We have been looking for a suitable site for a pub of our own and we have always sold a lot of beer in the Black Country.

"We also wanted to serve bottled beer and food and wanted suitable premises that were not already a pub and decided a shop would be best, preferably with some character as well."

He said that the local branch of the Campaign for Real Ale had said that the Queen Square site would be a good spot.

"Although it took quite a long time to get it licenced it has been worthwhile. We only started the conversion in November so couldn't open for Christmas as we had first hoped," said Mr Slater, who first thought of opening a pub in the city when he visited the Wolverhampton Beer Festival in his early 20s.

"With all the regeneration going on it has got massive scope for the future," he added.

His wife Fay, also a director, said that the city council had been fantastic in helping the brewery with the project, particularly in finding suitable staff.

The new bar got the thumbs up from the Mayor of Wolverhampton, Councillor Ian Brookfield, on the opening night: "It is a fantastic place with some proper beers and they have kept some of the old features. The upstairs bar is a beautiful place to sit and watch what is going on in the square."