New craft beer and street food bar coming to Cardiff

Two independent Cardiff businesses have joined forces to launch a new craft beer and street food bar in one of the city's suburbs. Kegbelly is set to open this summer in Whitchurch's high street taking over the dormant site of Gathering Ground café in Park Road.

The new venture is a collaboration between craft brewery Flowerhorn Brewery, run by friends Andrew Traynor and Arran McHugh, and street food caterers Mr Croquewich, run by couple Darren Lewis and Emma Carter. It's hoped it will welcome customers from the end of June, serving up refreshing pints and oozing toasted cheese sandwiches just in time for the summer.

It will no doubt be a much-welcomed and much-needed addition to Cardiff's hospitality scene, which has seen an alarming number of restaurants and bars close this year – most recently Tukka Tuk Canteen on Whitchurch Road – citing insurmountable expenses and reduced footfall.

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Andrew, 31, said he and Arran, 28, set up Flowerhorn Brewery in the summer of 2019. The pair met Darren, 43, and Emma, 39, by chance when they opened their brewery and taproom in Bridge Studios – shipping container studios off Western Avenue – in 2020. For the latest Cardiff news sign up to our newsletter here.

Mr Croquewich's production kitchen is also located at one of the studio units and the neighbouring businesses decided to work together with Mr Croquewich serving up their signature cheese toasties and chicken burgers to punters in Flowerhorn's taproom. "We never planned to do food ourselves so it's a perfect match-up," said Andrew. "That's pretty much where it started and that's been going on now for three years. And over that time we've become good friends."

The group started discussing launching their own venue, Kegbelly, together in October last year. Andrew and Arran had been eyeing up the Gathering Ground as a site to open their first bar.

"Mr Croquewich has been looking for a site in north Cardiff for a few years now – they've just been waiting for the perfect opportunity," said Andrew. "I mentioned it to Darren and Emma and very quickly it was suggested they would be interested as well. A few days later we went and had a viewing together and then all of us were really excited by the prospect of us working together and it went from there."

With licensing and planning permission permission granted they recently picked up the keys for Kegbelly. "The legal side is all done and we've signed the lease. Now it's just a bit of refurbishment to bring it into our own style and our own branding," said Andrew. Support award-winning journalism with WalesOnline’s Premium app on Apple or Android.

As for why they chose Whitchurch he added: "It seems like it will really be a good addition to the community. There's no craft beer in the area and there's no street food in the area so anyone who's interested in that kind of thing has to travel outside of Whitchurch." Mr Croquewich, which currently plates up mouth-watering grilled cheese sandwiches, parmesan fried chicken burgers, and crinkle-cut fries, is currently working on a new menu ready for Kegbelly.

Both Flowerhorn Brewery and Mr Croquewich's current sites will continue to trade as normal and they will hire a new team to help them manage Kegbelly. Andrew added: "The whole thing is pretty surreal. It was always our dream to have our own venue aside from the taproom and the fact that we've got a full restaurant and it's all gone through is just amazing."