New bar planned for Sheffield’s Orchard Square at former Macpot restaurant site

Plans have been submitted to change a first floor restaurant at Orchard Square into a bar with an outdoor terrace overlooking the square.

The building was the former Macpot, the city centre’s first mac and cheese kitchen, which closed in January.

Macpot opened in February 2020, owned by sisters Hatty Morris and Emily Webster, only to be hit three weeks later by the first national lockdown due to the Covid pandemic.

Because the venue was so new, Macpot was not eligible for the furlough scheme to help pay staff wages and it was also unable to get help from the Small Business Grant Fund.

It reopened to indoor diners in May 2021 but had to close again as the Omicron variant hit the nation.

They decided to stop trading completely at the start of this year. In a Facebook statement they said: “We opened Macpot three weeks before a pandemic which shook every corner of the hospitality industry.

“It was our first bricks and mortar venture and while we knew it would be challenging and we’d make mistakes as budding entrepreneurs there was no way we could have predicted the impact Covid would have on our business.”

There’s few details about the new bar but it’s hoping to open from 2pm to 2am. It will complement Sheffield Plate, which opened in September 2021.

Sheffield Plate, spanning two floors, offers food from around the world with local independent street food vendors, bars and live entertainment.

Planning officers are considering the application