Features / Drink
A visit to Bristol’s first prosecco bar
Why have you opened a prosecco bar in a shopping centre? That was the first question on my mind while driving to The Mall at Cribbs Causeway to visit Scavi & Ray’s new bar.
Agreed, everyone (mostly of the female variety) that I know, loves a prosecco. It’s become the choice drink to bring round to a house party, leaving the trusty bottle of wine at home.
So ambitious is the prosecco battle to the top of the celebratory drinks list that it is now out selling Champagne as the UK’s favourite.
is needed now More than ever
But do we really need to have prosecco available on tap and to appear on every corner like a fast food joint or coffee shop?
On arriving on the food court balcony, the charming bar manager insisted that a shopping centre on the outskirts of Bristol was the perfect place for this Italian brand to open their first UK bar.
“Scavi & Ray opened the Prosecco Bar to promote the Scavi & Ray name,” he told me. “How many prosecco brands do you know?” Err… I guess one, now.
“This is the first bar of its kind,” the manager continued. “Scavi & Ray have never owned a shop, let alone a bar. We sponsor fashion shows and could only be bought online until now, so this is a whole new thing for us.”
The thing that was still puzzling me was why you would put a prosecco bar in a shopping centre that most people get to by car or bus?
I am now imagining husbands having to come and pick up their half-cut wives from Cribbs as they can’t drive the family car home since they have been enjoying themselves living it up in this new bar and then decided to go on another shopping spree in their new state of prosecco euphoria.
I imagine hubby isn’t best pleased…
The manager insists that “prosecco is so popular now and is a fashionable drink that people like to be seen drinking, so even stopping for one glass and a bite to eat, is all they want”.
So will the Scavi & Ray Prosecco Bar be a success here?
I’m not sure. We were treated well by the bar staff and it was quite fun sitting on a bar stall in the middle of The Mall, although it did have a similar feeling to an airport bar which frankly cheered me up as it made me feel like I was about to go on holiday. Or was it the prosecco cheering me up?
Whatever it was, it didn’t seem as odd as it sounds.
Prosecco is a sharing drink. It’s fun. It also goes down very easily which means you can get through a tonne of it and in your head you are having the best time. Do we really need this while shopping?
I’ve changed my mind. *hic* It’s a great idea for this bar to open in a shopping centre. *hic* Cheers!
Photos by Fiona Burgess
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