As Miller Commercial complete negotiations to place a fifth new bar/restaurant in Truro in as many months the company’s Head of Agency Mike Nightingale explains why we’ll have to stomach even more.”
Last month, just minutes after securing a premises licence, national bar/café chain Loungers announced they’d be opening their latest ‘Lounge’ in the former TSB bank building at Princes Street in time for Christmas.
With 36 branches nationwide including Bristol and Bath, the Truro Lounge will be the company’s first foray into Cornwall.
Just round the corner on New Bridge Street, Sam’s, the latest in a popular Cornish restaurant chain will just pip Loungers to the post opening its doors to diners at the end of October.
Meanwhile, at the other end of town American diner Mustard and Rye has been buzzing with customers since it opened last month at the former Pippa’s Steak House premises in Calenick Street.
The previous month saw the opening of Night Jar, a small sophisticated bar on Old Bridge Street; and in case you were thinking it’s just grown-ups who are being catered to, there was good news for the kiddies too when Angelato’s Artisan Ice Cream on St Mary’s Street served up its first Sundae.
When you take into account Baking Bird café and bakery and the former Kazba splitting into two eateries you might think that when it comes to restaurants and bars Truro has reached saturation point.
But I can tell you there are firm plans for more in the pipeline. As an agency we receive regular enquiries from national chains and independent restaurant and bar businesses keen to get a foot hold in Truro.
That’s because those businesses have done their research and they know the high street isn’t dying, it’s evolving.
Latest stats from the Local Data Company show that while shops are closing, nationally high street vacancies are falling. In towns comparable to the size of Truro it’s fallen from 15.% last year to 11.9% this year.
That’s positive, but what’s interesting is the new occupants have tended to be “restaurants, bars, cafes and even betting shops”, according to LDC director Matthew Hopkinson. He said these types of businesses had “come to the rescue as the growth of leisure takes off in our town centres”.
I would agree that certainly in Truro the restaurants and bars have come to the rescue of the high street. Especially in the case of Loungers and Mustard and Rye, where the buildings had been empty for years.
We know many high street retailers have suffered severe drops in sales because of online shopping. But people still want to get out of the house. So what do they do rather than shop? Meet friends for lunch or a drink – do some kind of leisure activity to fill the hours they previously would have spent shopping.
So if you want to support you’re local high street the answer could be to make a concerted effort to eat, drink and be merry at as many of our local outlets as possible.
