Top Sheffield restaurant opens new cocktail and wine bar

The bar, located below the award-winning restaurant Rafters on Oakbrook Road in Nether Green, will aim to be a ‘neighbourhood bar’ for both diners heading to Rafters for dinner and those just wanting a drink.Alistair Myers, co-owner at Rafters with business partner Tom Lawson, said it was something the team had wanted to do for some time.He said: “We’re always running out of space and people often want to come and have a drink before dinner. Rafters doesn’t have a bar, so people end up going to the Rising Sun pub up the road or they don’t have time to do that.“So this was all born out of the thought ‘wouldn’t Rafters be better if it had a bar?’”A chance conversation with the restaurant building’s landlord revealed a space was becoming available.Interestingly, the unit that is being transformed into the bar was once connected to the restaurant when both had a former use, so they will be reunited with a single purpose once again in the new project.Alistair, who is also Sheffield's only certified sommelier, said: “Originally the restaurant was in the old Co-op storeroom, and the bar was the archway were the horse used to have to travel through to deliver to the Co-op. It was converted to a shop and they didn’t want the upstairs, so it was split into two.”The bar will specialise in wine and cocktails and have a relaxed ambience, split over two levels.Alistair said: “We’ll do a bit of both classic cocktails and our own inventions, there will be a classic cocktail list and a signature list.“You’ll be able to get a great Old Fashioned there if that is what you want but also something that is a little bit different.”The team appealed on social media for bar name suggestions but felt that most indicated the bar was just for Rafters customers, when it will be open to all.Alistair, who joked it was the 'bar with no name’, said: “We want it to be a local neighbourhood bar serving great cocktails. What Rafters is all about is an experience.“We want people to be able to start or have their experience at the bar, somewhere you can come and get the same level of quality with a drink as with our food.”