Glasgow-born Cocktail and Street Food pioneers, Bar Soba, will be opening a multi-level bar, restaurant and late-night venue in Derby city centre before the end of the year.
The brand, who are celebrating almost 20 years in business, will be transforming the iconic Old Post Office on Victoria Street. The space will be truly reinvigorated and feature purpose-built cocktail bars, spacious dining areas, striking private spaces for a variety of events, urban luxury décor featuring stunning geisha graffiti, as well as boasting custom sound-systems for music and club nights.
If you haven’t heard Bar Soba, here’s a little history lesson. Bar Soba was first launched as a pop-up restaurant at the Edinburgh Fringe in 1997, and now it boasts five sites across Glasgow, Edinburgh and Leeds. As well as Derby and Liverpool, it is also considering opening restaurants in cities such as Newcastle, Manchester, Nottingham and more. The expansion follows a £3m investment by the Business Growth Fund (BGF). The company, which serves creative cocktails and South-East Asian Street dishes, hopes to eventually operate at 30 different locations. Expansion will begin with Derby, Liverpool and the North of England.
Brad Stevens, founder and chief executive, said: “I’m really excited about our ambitious expansion plans and that we’ve found the right partner to provide the funding and expertise we need to accelerate our growth. Expansion to 12 city centre locations will allow even more drinkers and diners to enjoy our combination of indulgent cocktails, freshly prepared street food inspired by the night markets of South East Asia and music.”
Bar Soba are an award-winning Bar & Kitchen concept who specialise in creative, indulgent cocktails, Expect street-food inspired by the bustling night markets of South East Asia and cutting-edge music from local DJ talent. Remixes are on the menu at Soba with their cocktails, street-food and soundtrack all featuring Soba ‘twists’ on signature drinks, street food dishes and music.
The drinks list was curated to put the fun back into drinking cocktails, using premium ingredients, exotic flavours and a bit of theatre! The Osaka Sour pays homage to the disco era of cocktail making – a bright green twist on the Midori Sour topped with a lemon-meringue foam. Drinkers will find cheeky alcoholic twists on childhood favourites in their Drumstick Caipirovska and fans of the Porn Star Martini – brace yourselves for the 1.5litre Porn ‘Jar’ version which will be on offer. They will offer premium products at promo prices with midweek drinks promotions.
Classic Street Food dishes have been given a contemporary Soba remix such as the popular Chicken Katsu Curry which is prepared with crispy buttermilk fried chicken rather than the traditional Panko crumb. If you love spring rolls, you’ll be keen to try their Cheeseburger Spring Rolls which are handmade and filled with spicy Szechuan ground beef, gherkins and gooey cheddar. They will also offer an Express Lunch to meet the needs of the businesses in the area as well as mid-week savings for Derby students. Music is a big part of the Soba experience and they are currently on the hunt for Derby’s best DJs to provide the soundtrack to eating, drinking and dancing ‘til late.
Creating great experiences is what Soba do best and they will be offering interactive Cocktail Masterclasses, Prosecco Pong (beer pong’s more sophisticated counterpart) and Boozy Brunches – a £25 lunch that includes 4 cocktails!
Soba know that they can’t do all of this without great people and are currently recruiting for a number of positions, both front and back of house. Their recruitment campaign is expected to bring around 30-40 job to the city and they are excited to meet talented chefs of all levels, skilled mixologists and great front of house personalities. For more info or to join team Soba, visit www.barsoba.co.uk/teamsoba.
To sign up for updates on the opening, visit the website or check out their social media pages (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at @barsobaderby).