Licencing row bar finally opens with VIP guest (From Bucks Free Press)

Licencing row bar finally opens with VIP guest

12:50pm Thursday 13th September 2012 in News By Simon Farr

A WINE bar which was almost forced to call last orders before it had even opened its doors has finally launched – with a special guest appearance.

The Ladies and Gentlemen bar in Pauls Row opened last week following a recent licensing row - with Wycombe singing sensation Leigh-Anne Pinnock bringing her Little Mix bandmates along for the launch party.

Brendan Sealy, joint owner of the bar, said: “It’s great to finally be open.

“We’ve been very busy and we had Little Mix in over the weekend, so we had quite a crowd building outside and downstairs trying to meet them.

“Having Little Mix here has really given the place that VIP feel. We’ve been getting people in from across the area but one of the reasons we launched is because Wycombe people said they didn’t drink in Wycombe.

“And we’ve been getting a lot of Wycombe people coming in, so it’s great that local people now have a nice local place they can go to for a drink.”

But it was touch and go as to whether the wine would ever flow at the bar.

The BFP reported last month how the venue was denied a premises licence the day it was due to hold its original launch party.

A member of the public lodged a complaint at the 11th hour of the 28 day licence consultation period, citing noise fears, despite live music venue O’Neill’s and the Falcon pub being situated within 14 meters of it.

Mr Sealy said the opening night cancellation and subsequent delay cost him £20,000 and he feared it could bankrupt him and his business partner.

25 people the firm recruited, 22 of which were off the dole, quit to look for work as they could not afford to wait while the issue was resolved.

But that is all now a thing of the past following Wycombe District Council’s decision to throw out the licensing objection, with 75 percent of the original staff members returning to take up their posts.

Mr Sealy said: “The council didn’t see any reason to reject our application, so we were obviously pleased with that.

“We’re really grateful to the staff that came back to us and we’ll be a full strength in terms of staff in a couple of weeks.

“We’ve also doing some charity stuff soon to support one of our staff members whose relative died from heart disease, so lots coming up.”

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