Award-winning Harrogate bar's £250,000 expansion nearly complete as it plans bigger and better future

Popular café bar Starling is closed while it undergoes a £250k+ expansion of its customer area, tripling the internal ground floor space and doubling the frontage on the street.

The building project on Oxford Street began around 12 weeks ago, with the landlord also converting the upper floors into residential space.

Starling is expected to close for around three weeks while the ground floor work is completed

Owner/Director Simon Midgley is confident the move is the right one for the business despite the current economic climate and several other hospitality businesses recently closing down in town.

“We bounced back very strongly after the enforced closures during Covid lockdowns over the past couple of years,” said Mr Midgeley.

"We know what we do is well thought of and we’ve got a solid loyal local customer base.

"We first looked next door at the end of last year and it has taken a long time to get to this point.

"The economic climate has changed a lot in that time which has brought with it further challenges and risks.

"But I’m confident we’ve done our sums prudently to take us positively forward into 2023 and beyond.”

One of the key reasons for the expansion, as well as extending the ground floor space, is to provide a more welcoming shop window of what Starling offers from the street.

The bar will be turned around, dropped back and be much larger than before.

There will be much more comfortable seating for customers, plus the creation of a cosy lower level snug in the window of the original entrance.

The kitchen is also being upgraded with new state-of-the-art equipment including a walk in cold room.

Mr Midgeley said customers can still expect the same warm welcome and award-winning bespoke food and drinks.

“We’re expecting to be significantly busier,” he said, "but we aren’t trying to fix what isn’t broken.

"We’ve got to this point because of our offer and the way our fabulous team deliver it.

"I’ve got every confidence that we have the right people and products to keep moving upwards.”

Simon first opened Starling in March 2017 after 20 years’ experience in the food and drinks industry, including 12 years with Knaresborough-based Market Town Taverns.

The awards soon came pouring in for the new cafe bar which has become famed for freshly-made pizzas.

In 2018 alone, Starling won the Summer Pub 2018 award from the West Riding Society for the Preservation of Beers from the Wood (SPBW), Harrogate and Ripon CAMRA’s Pub of the Year and the award for Newcomer of the Year in the 2018 Harrogate Hospitality and Tourism Awards.

Known for being open to supporting live events and playing its part in Harrogate as a town, in 2020 Harrogate independent Starling Bar Café Kitchen was appointed as an official partner café to top-of-the-range cycling clothing label Rapha following its successful collaboration during the UCI World Championships.

Once it reopens, more jobs will be created at Starling, including part-time front-of-house roles and a full time experienced Sous Chef in the kitchen.

Anyone wishing to apply to work as part of the team should email Dan at [email protected]

For more information, visit www.murmurationbars.co.uk