The new owners say the town has potential to become Derbyshire’s next big thing
(L-R) Jenson, Lucas, Andrew, Rebecca and Lewis Slater(Image: The Hug and Heave)
A Derbyshire bar on a busy high street looks to pay a subtle nod to a town’s heritage and history when it opens its doors later this month. The Slater family has called Ashbourne home for more than a decade now, and they are bringing their wealth of bar management experience to the town with their upcoming venture.
They will soon get the keys to the Wine Bar at 33 St John Street, a pretty corner of the Derbyshire Dales town often adorned with tri-colour bunting overhead. It’s “perfect timing” for the family of five, with the mammoth Ashbourne Reborn regeneration set to come to an end later this month – just in time for the Slaters to get up and running.
Landlord and landlady Rebecca and Andrew Slater will also be calling on the services of their three boys, Jenson, 14, Lucas, 19, and Lewis, 22, at the new bar, which is set to open on November 29. The bar will be renamed ‘The Hug and Heave’, aptly named by Lewis after the ‘hug’ that follows Ashbourne’s Royal Shrovetide Football Match each year – and the ‘heave’ noise that goes with it.
Rebecca, 42, and Andrew, 47, met through the industry itself when Andrew was working at the Strutt Arms in Millford, and Rebecca was working at the old Imperial Vaults in Belper – a pub that her parents used to run when she was growing up. Andy would do his banking in the Amber Valley town and the pair met on one of his visits – and they’ve been together ever since.
So the two are very much intertwined with the pub and bar industry, but taking on a place of their own is something that’s “very much new” to the pair. Rebecca chuckled: “It’s definitely been an eye-opener trying to get everything organised.
“Without Andrew we would never have been able to do it. He’s been sorting everything out and he’s been such a legend, but I’m sure I’ve got most of the hard work to do once we’re open.”
The 42-year-old continued: “Obviously, growing up in a pub, I always felt like it was in my genes. When we met, Andrew and I were both in the same trade, and I’ve been badgering him for years and years to get our own place – but the answer has always been no. But when this opportunity came up, we just knew we had to do it.
“But we knew that if it was going to work, the whole family would need to be in on it. It would need all five of us on board. So, we spoke with the kids and they were keen on it. My eldest, Lewis, has a catering qualification from Buxton college, and Lucas is a very sought-after barman in the town – so we knew they’d do a brilliant job if we got them on board.”
The Hug and Heave will be a bar/cafe that’s open in the mornings for breakfast and brunch, before becoming a bar in the evening. Rebecca added that there is scope to do food in the evenings, but that it would remain a bar while they find their feet.
And the town itself could be the place to visit in Derbyshire soon when the Ashbourne Reborn project is complete, something which Rebecca, who most recently worked at Marks and Spencer and will continue to be an on-call firefighter, added is creating quite the buzz around town. “The road isn’t quite completely open yet, but it looks like we’ll be moving in at just the right time,” added Rebecca.
“There are parts of the town that might not be finished until the new year, but I’ve been speaking with other businesses around the town, and they are expecting a bit of a boom in Ashbourne once this is completed.
“People are saying it is a very up-and-coming town, one where a lot of people want to be. So it’s all positive and the timing is brilliant. We’re just so excited to get going.
“We have a quick 10-day turnaround and, if everything goes to plan, we’re hoping to open the doors for the first time on November 29.”
