Amble cocktail bar soars in popularity since opening

Owners Chris and Becca Green have had a whirlwind few months and are on their way to achieving their three-year plan way ahead of schedule, partly thanks to support received from the Rural Design Centre.

With a name inspired by a tattoo shared by Becca and her dad, Hummingbird originally started life as a 20-page cocktail leaflet and pop-up bar before transforming into a 200-page hardback cocktail book, a bustling new cafe-bar on Queen Street and developing a range of ‘at home’ cocktails by the bottle.

Chris, a former mixologist at a Michelin star bar, said: “We were never sure where the business would go.

"Initially, I wanted to create a 20-page booklet with my favourite cocktails in, and do a batch run so that we, and a few of my friends and family, would have something on their coffee table.

“That’s now turned into us having the new cafe-bar, and we’re in the final stages of creating a 200-page cocktail book which we’re hoping to publish soon.

"When we first met Liz from the Rural Design Centre, we didn’t know which direction we were wanting to go in. She helped us put together a three-year and a five-year business plan so that we could map out each stage.

"We are already well on our way to hitting our three-year targets within only ten months.”

The couple, both from Amble, are proud to be able to use local suppliers, making a conscious decision to give their customers a Northumberland experience.

Their menu of sharing boards is constructed using produce which is sourced within a 22-mile radius, with their chutney supplier being only a few doors down.

Becca said: “We wanted to serve the things that we love to have ourselves; so, we have Doddington Cheeses, we get all of the pork pies, sausage rolls, scotch eggs from Turnbulls. Even the crisps, and the oil and vinegars we use for dipping are from Seabanks at Buston Barns which is down the road.

"We have an amazing group of producers here in Northumberland – it makes sense to showcase what we have an offer in the region.”

The pair have also been working with Hepple Spirits, learning more about their unique distilling techniques in order to share details of the provenance of ingredients with their customers.

They were also given the opportunity to plant their own juniper bush to make cocktails with their very own gin berries in the coming years.

Liz Gray, senior innovation manager at Rural Design Centre, said, “Chris and Becca have such a great product but weren’t sure how to plan beyond their pop-up events, so we went through their mid and long-term goals and looked at how they could grow and maintain the ethos.

"I worked with Chris as he took the next step of getting a mobile unit – in this case a small horsebox, and from there we agreed on future targets and what help we could give.

"They have now surpassed these targets and have done it in a sensible way, and it is so good to see how their brand is taking off.”