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Sunderland’s first distillery launched following £500k investment

A Sunderland based hospitality company has launched a new bar, and the city’s first distillery.

Tavistock Hospitality has unveiled Poetic License Distillery Bar within the Roker Hotel, specialising in craft beers, cocktails and soul food.

The launch comes after £500k of investment, which includes a full refurbishment of the former R-Bar with an extended outdoor terrace and soon-to-be in-house distillery.

Poetic License Bar and Distillery is the third phase of investment from Tavistock Hospitality Directors, who announced re-development plans 12 months ago. This has included tea rooms and cakery Let There Be Crumbs, and the Italian Farmhouse restaurant, plus a refurbishment of the hotel’s ballroom and other function spaces.

Mark Hird, managing director of Tavistock Hospitality, said: “Poetic License Distillery Bar is something totally different for not only this area but the whole of the North of England. To have a bar using its very own hand-crafted spirits is something that has never been done before.

“We wanted to breathe some much needed life back into the seafront scene. We’re hoping it will re-ignite the Roker circuit and encourage people to come and spend their evenings in this area again, rather than having no other option but to travel in to the city centre or as far as Newcastle for an evening out.”

“We’ve had a few queries with regards to the bar’s name. We wanted to do something different, and focus more upon the ethos of the bar and the atmosphere we wanted to create inside.

“The definition of Poetic License means ‘to be at liberty to deviate from conventional rules’. In the traditional English spelling of the phrase, Licence is spelled with a ‘c’. However when spelled with ‘S’ is a verb, meaning ‘to give permission to’.”

“So in our case, ‘Poetic License’ is the permission we grant you to be at liberty to deviate from conventional rules, be yourself and most of all enjoy yourself whilst in our bar – which is exactly what we’re hoping our customers will do when they visit.”