a touch of class By Trevor Jones

Joseph Cullinane and Andre Christopher-Cove opened Bar 98 this January to bring a classy upmarket Islington-style restaurant and bar to Stokey. It is cool and retro in style and unique to the area.

Joseph is better known as Joseph as in Patrick Joseph the estate agents. He became bored being an estate agent and decided to try something completely different. Why the restaurant/bar business? Joseph bluntly states ‘this area needed a kick up the arse. The bars were desperately lacking in the sense of Islington. We need an upper echelon in the area; a new way of eating dinner and entertaining’. As far as Joseph is concerned, the same principles apply to all businesses: ‘never accept second best, be meticulous and create perfection’. 

Joseph has known Andre, an ex-financial adviser, for twelve years. As far as Andre is concerned there was ‘a gap in the market and the area lacked something’. They want to ‘produce a quality bar and a quality eating area’ that gives ‘value for money’. Bar 98s talented chef is Neil Churchill who has cooked in many classy joints, including the Michelin one star-rated No 1 Lombard Street.

Bar 98 is split into two levels. The basement is a retro-style bar with plush red leather sofas. It is the perfect place, with its background soothing piped jazz, to chill out and enjoy a post-work drink. The toilets are state-of-the-art modernity and also clean. What! How dare they! Clean toilets in Stokey? Like the ground floor level, the basement is air-conditioned and temperature-controlled. There is even an eccentric Irish bar man with a quick line in wit.

The ground floor level is a restaurant with a small bar area. Neil changes the menu on a weekly basis. The food is ‘glamorous British food’ with inputs of the best European dishes. Recent goodies on the menu include ‘Galloway beef fillet’, ‘Peppered Venison Barnsley chop’ and ‘Tapenade crusted Tuna loin’. Recent desserts include ‘Montbriac’ (cinnamon poached pears and toasted walnut bread) and ‘Iced winter berries’. Bar 98 even offers a traditional Sunday roast with one difference: the lamb is organic Welsh lamb and the beef is organic Scottish beef. The bread is supplied daily by a local baker and, like the menu, changes on a regular basis.

Bar 98 has an extensive selection of drinks, including Draught Becks and other beers at average Stokey prices and a wide selection of spirits and cocktails. There is a long wine list, priced to suit all pockets. Bar 98 has a good house wine and white wines are served at the right temperature – chilled!  To wine lovers this is a big relief after putting up with insipid warm white wine in some establishments. On Sundays, you can relax in the ground floor bar area and listen to live jazz courtesy of Pablo Odriozola and Andrea Quintarelli.

After early hiccups, the service is friendly and efficient. The tolerant bar staff and waitresses are a combination of Poland meets Barcelona meets the Czech Republic meets, er. Burnley – very Stokey.

Bar 98 is a new concept for Stokey. It the kind of place you would expect to find in Islington or Shoreditch. Stokey’s strength has always been its rich diversity of ethnicity and culture that is reflected in its wide variety of restaurants and bars. 

It will be interesting to see if a sophisticated venture of this nature will establish itself as the venue of choice on a Church Street.