Not Open; Don’t Come: The secret Orchard Square wine bar where you need to call a number on the door to get in
Owners of a trendy new bar in Orchard Square say they’re putting flavour first as they create a welcoming space for people to learn more about wine - that’s if you can find the venue.
Wine is a unique thing - while many like, or even love it, the culture surrounding the fermented grape beverage can often seem impenetrable.
And so, the one of the minds behind The Old Shoe in Orchard Square thought that they could break barriers while playfully enjoying this ‘cultured’ stereotype.
After seeing sales of wine increase at what they thought would be a more beer focused venue, he decided to take over and convert the space above the pub into a speakeasy-style bar.
At ‘Not Open; Don’t Come’, nestled in a cosy, secluded bar, customers can learn more about wine, try a variety of flavours and types and maintain discussions with staff to better understand whether a Bordeaux or pinot noir better suits their pallet.
Guests to the bar enter through a rear fire door, calling a number on the door to access the secret staircase.
“Having good drinks is always at the heart of what we do,” said owner Mike Pomranz.
“For this place I came up with the name first, which sounds like a horrible way to devise a bar, but I think the name says so much in what we’re trying to do here.
“My path starts with The Cider Hole, which focused on cider, which led me to realise that Sheffield likes cider but we needed a kind of broader market. You need a place that sells a lot of nice beer in Sheffield.
“With The Old Shoe the idea was to add a lot of great beer, and a lot of great wine - do every drink anyone could want as well as possible.
“What I realised then is just how popular wine was at The Old Shoe, which I think reflects that no one else is filling that niche very well in Sheffield. So I had this idea to focus on more weird and wonderful wines.”
At the heart of the venture is good flavours, looking to serve up tasty wine, rather than selling something pretentious.
He jokes about wine that’s boasted for having ‘been made in sight of a pack of donkeys’ but nevertheless tastes ‘asinine’.
“Here the idea is that first of all taste is paramount,” Mike added.
“We don’t want people to have to be choosing because they like Bordeaux and they know that it’s posh, or that they only drink natural wine and they don’t really think about anything else.
“We want every glass of wine to be absolutely incredibly delicious - if it doesn’t pop out of the glass I’m not bothered by it.”