What we do
We wanted to add something different to the great independent bars and shops in Bedminster. Pioneering the first ‘natural’ wine bar in Bristol, we focus on biodynamic and minimal intervention wines, with a frequently changing selection of red, white and rosé, alongside locally sourced beer and gin. Sustainability is at the heart of our business, and we encourage customers to refill their own KASK wine bottle, which also enables them to sample the full selection of wines on tap.
Connection to Bristol
We moved here in August 2019 to open KASK on North Street in Bedminster. Charlie’s brother and his family have lived here for years and own and run a bookshop called Max Minerva’s in Westbury Park.
Favourite thing/place about Bristol
Unfortunately, we only had a few months to enjoy the city before lockdown happened! But we did pack a lot in before March 2020 came around… mostly eating and drinking at all the incredible indies on North Street and throughout Bristol. Exploring the city through food and drink has definitely only increased now Bristol is back open – we’re so lucky to have so many amazing places to eat and drink here!
Challenges
The biggest challenge has been the pivot we’ve had to make so early in the life-cycle of the business – we were only open for six months before COVID closed the doors. However, the support from the local community for our delivery service and DIY at-home wine and cheese tasting kits has been absolutely phenomenal, with BS3 word of mouth leading to huge support nationwide!
Future plans – for you and the city
The period since we were able to fully re-open KASK’s doors (outside as well as in) in May of this year has been the first time we’ve had a good indication of what our ‘new normal’ is – so bar-wise we’re focusing purely on solidifying a great team and offering that appeals to people near and far. We’ve also introduced exclusive hire of our space alongside in-bar privately hosted tastings, which are proving popular.
Otherwise, our new website and e-commerce platform has now gone live. The new site will build upon our online recognition to date, in order to drive sales of our DIY tasting kits and hosted virtual wine and cheese tastings for corporates and customers up and down the country – especially over the festive period. We hosted office-wide tastings for many Bristol businesses and organisations throughout lockdown, which we like to think brought something a little bit different to lockdown life in the city, and provided a bit of fun and respite for those working from home. We’ve also had a lot of people do our tastings in different cities say that they can’t wait to come to Bristol once they can… and asked us where we would recommend to eat/stay/visit etc.
