Dhillon’s Brewery is an award-winning microbrewery based in Coventry. Dhillon’s specialises in the production of personalised and themed craft beers.
After searching for an interior designer for a newly acquired venue, Dhillon’s Brewery approached Black Ivy Design as they were keen to work with a Coventry-based design studio to keep the talent within the city. The venue secured by Dhillon’s was one of Coventry City’s famous three spires, Christchurch Spire. It is a beautiful grade two listed spire which is the last remaining part of a 13th-century monastery.
At Black Ivy we specialise in bar interior design. After implementing our design, Dhillon’s Brewery has seen the Spire Bar grow to be one of the city’s most prominent hospitality providers. Since The Spire Bar opened, Dhillon’s has won an array of awards, including The Best Pub & Bar Award, Godiva Award and Artisan Drink Producer at the Foodie Awards.
Despite surviving through unprecedented times such as a global pandemic, Dhillon’s have gone from strength to strength with more venues opening on the horizon.
Having beat over 70 applicants for the lease of Christchurch Spire, the team at Dhillon’s knew they had to do something spectacular with the venue. The iconic 700-year-old building seeps history and being a staple of the city’s skyline, they knew if they got it wrong the people of Coventry would never forgive them.
When Dhillon’s first approached Black Ivy Design, they didn’t know which direction they wanted to take the interior design, they just knew they wanted to keep their brand identity and create an iconic venue to reflect the beautiful architecture of the building and create a relevant and atmospheric space.
The building itself had been vacant for over a year and was run down and filthy. The space was also a challenge, as it was only a 50mᒾ storage space, which was an issue from an operational point of view.
The other challenge they faced was the unprecedentedly changing environment of hospitality during the 2020 lockdown due to the pandemic. So, how do we future-proof a design, without knowing the impact the pandemic would have on the way we socialise?
Dhillon’s Brewery first heard of Black Ivy Design through a recommendation from a supplier. They had another design studio putting ideas together and asked for some ideas from both companies.
They decided to move forward with Black Ivy Design as they presented a design pack and went the extra mile by tendering three different design options including plans, mood boards and some simple elevations to give a flavour of what the design could look like.
Black Ivy made the design decision to introduce a high back bar to address the need for storing stock. By lighting this correctly, the back bar becomes the main focal point of the space and draws the eye up to the beautiful spire.
They also changed the positioning of the bar, so the space not only flows better and makes the customer journey easier, but it also takes centre stage complementing the back bar.
Many challenges were faced along the way due to supplies being affected by the pandemic, delays in opening due to the government enforcing lockdowns and staffing issues. However, Black Ivy hit the deadlines and worked around any issues without compromising on design.
The team at Dhillon’s Brewery were thoroughly impressed and blown away by the results with amazing feedback from customers.
“Black Ivy Design have the creativity and vision to not only to design a stunning space but run the project on time and on budget. Creating a venue that is both practical and profitable from an operational view.”
Gurj Sandhu, Director of the Spire Bar
