Cafe by day, bar by night – the new high street trend

As much as gin is revolutionising the alcoholic beverage industry right before our very eyes, willing entrepreneurs are taking note, which is leading to the opening of cafe-bars. These places allow you to tuck into a cream scone whilst sipping on a double G&T – sophistication at its finest.

It has to be helped by the handy fact that gin isn’t just popular with the older generation. Instead, all ages enjoy the taste of blood oranges or strawberries mixed with elderflower tonic or lemonade.

This genius idea works a treat – allowing owners to maximise revenue from an expensive high street sector. By opening somewhere from late morning to late evening, it allows the venue to develop a good reputation of being open all of the time.

Additionally, there are more types of jobs now than there were even 25 years ago. Therefore, sociable hours are different for everyone now. So if you fancy going out at 4pm for an early night, you can.

In fact, the high street seems to be making way for these coffeehouses, with the BBC showing how pubs and clubs are moving out of the bigger streets to make way for… cafes and restaurants!

This evidence, alas small, gives the impression that us Brits aren’t all for a nice drink at the end of the week, with some deferring to book a table at the local restaurant and make a night of it. This, with the addition of a local band or two, who know the classics from Queen and The Killers, is enough to draw masses away from bigger towns and bars.

For instance, Whickham High Street on a Friday and Saturday night is booming with people from all surrounding towns and villages pub-crawling. Since 2017, The One Eyed Stag and Cafe Lutz have opened, serving food to many during the day, and drinks to the many when the sun goes down.

The only thing which prevents places like Whickham from reaching their full potential is the requirement that in residential areas all pubs and bars must close by 12am midnight. I can imagine that this may be frustrating for the owners, to kick out their valuable customers to give the homeowner next door a good night’s sleep, but the law’s the law.

In conclusion, pubs will now need to develop a ‘daytime game’ to continue being as successful as they formerly were. Most likely this will involve a swanky renovation followed by the overuse of the word ‘gastro’, which somehow allows for a 75% price inflation – you know exactly what type of places I’m talking about. Not just daylight robbery anymore.