Café Del Bar - by Richard

Café Del Bar - by Richard

Last summer I had the brilliant idea of creating a bar in my garden, inspired by seeing my good friend Ash from Two Fat Blokes with his bar he had created I set about it. Now there a few things you should know about me, I am a professional business mentor and coach, I have years of experience working in marketing on some of the biggest brands in the world – however: I am also not great with being practical – using my hands and any form of DIY.

Now luckily for me when the idea of having a bar came about, I was having my garden re-patioed so it was easy enough to get the landscaper to put a bit of concrete down, after all even I know you need good foundations to build something.  

Part 1 Construction: 

When the bar arrived I am sure the instructions were in a foreign language –

   

 

Luckily I had some friends who on a hot weekend in 2021 on the promise of a cold beer and a few hours away from their families spoke the language of DIY. We managed to get the shell of the bar built.

I was so excited – for weeks I had been buying bottles of spirits in the supermarket – whichever was on special offer and I was running out of space in the house – I finally thought I was about there – oh how WRONG I was.

A local sparky put power and lighting in and I started to dream about having the lads around for a few drinks – er no.

 

I am a creative person and after a few pointers from Ash I found some amazing groups on Facebook that had loads of garden bars that were up and running, I started looking for ideas and inspiration – a trip to Birmingham and to the Fat Blokes Bar made me realise I needed a theme, storage, and to turn it from a shed into somewhere I wanted to spend time. 

STAGE 2 – The Fitout: 

Now like I said I am not very competent at DIY – so again I lit the bat light and with a large payment of beer and merch the Fat Bloke offered to come over and help on the condition I bought everything in advance and I would be his apprentice!!! I have worked on some of the biggest brands in the world, I have run companies and now own my own business, however I can always learn more.

So I screwed, I sanded, fitted something called plywood, went to Wickes and pretended to know what I was talking about as I hunted out yacht varnish (that stuff is amazing). I put in an amp and speakers to listen to Pub Shed Radio ( yes it really exists - Live Dj's broadcasting from their sheds to mine.)

Helped Ash build storage

 This man is a genius and he owns a laser – how cool is that..

 

After a couple of days working together I had learnt so much, the bar now looked like a bar rather than a shed! We painted it and started it to fill it with my whiskey collection and all the bargain booze I had been collecting from Tesco, Asda and Sainsburys for months. I had to add in scampi fries, bacon frazzles and pork scratchings!!!! 

Here is a short video of the bar being built here. 

Part 3 The Result 

Finally after weeks of debate I settled on Café Del Bar as the name, inspired by the legendary Ibiza bar on the beach – I sent off my brief off to Two Fat Blokes and a week later my bar sign, bar mats and runners arrived. 

 

I love my bar, its been a welcome relief from the pandemic, a place where my friends can hang out and enjoy the fruits of my newfound DIY skills and expert drinks choices, whilst listening to the finest music (Pub Shed radio & my random playlists.)

Thanks Ash for your helping building the bar and to the rest of the TWOFB for your design skills for my signage – hmmm maybe I should launch a merch range.

It might not win Pub Shed of The Year 2022 but I'm entering anyway. 

This project was one of the hardest I have personally undertaken but also one of the most rewarding – I love my bar – cheers Richard