Karl wrote:The Alchemist is opening in the old Nat West in St Mary Street. It's a cocktail bar apparently so maybe should be in a different thread but I can't find the Bar and Pubs thread which used to be the busiest on this forum but is now gathering dust somewhere. A sign of the times.
Anyway this is a mini chain from Manchester with plans to expand in Cardiff, Bristol and Nottingham.
Are we reaching peak cocktail bar? Dirty Martini, Be at One, Pennyroyals in High Street and the Libertine (currently being kitted out and also in High Street) are new arrivals on the cocktail scene. Plus the Dead Canary and probably other places. Is it a sign of the more sophisticated tastes of your average Cardiffian or is it a fad and instead of being twatted on WKD's and Stella we will be twatted on Long Island Iced Teas and strawberry daquiris instead?
I guess it underlines the complete routing of retail in the High Street/St Mary Street vicinity. A couple of banks are hanging on and a few specialist shops but almost everything else is coffee shops, bars/pubs, eateries, convenience shops and takeaways.
Lloyds Bank in Canton is becoming a Costa. I loved those cashpoints but they are gone. I got my money from them for 20 years. I don't drink coffee any more and I certainly would never spend a few quid at Costa or its ilk. Pontcanna's borders move ever southwards. Eventually Canton will be tiny, sandwiched between a vast Pontcanna and a burgeoning "Victoria Park" district. In the not-so-distant future, Canton will cease to exist and Jantra's haunt, the Canton Cross, will be a hipster hangout specialising in arcane streetfoods and be known as "Pontcanna Cottage."