By We ran a piece last week about how we stumbled across a relatively new bar/eatery Folk Wine Kitchen and noted that Society Café:Bar was our actual intended destination -well, we found it!
Keep reading for your chance to win a Wimbledon Bottomless Brunch for 4 this Saturday or Sunday worth nearly £100
On Cleethorpes main High Street tucked in between Wetherspoons, O’North and located on the same strip as other popular venues such as The Bobbin lies the new home of Brett Smith’s Society.
Like any other article and passionate journalist, it starts with the research you do prior to asking the questions, a pre-conception if you will of what you see, need to and want to ask and this was no different. Sport Music Film the strap line under the name, boasting numerous TV screens, an outside Cinema / Stadium and a range of food & drink no one could moan at. On a closer inspection of their social media we saw numerous posts about film showings & acoustic days/nights as well as the recent showing of the Women’s World Cup and as we speak the full viewing of this years’ Wimbledon Championships but what did it mean, was it just showing it, was it an event?
We caught up with Director Brett Smith to find out a little more
Society is all about Sport, Music & Film. It came about when People Bar was less than a year old, so many of our customers talked of a lack of places to go that were a little bit different, lots sharing the same interests and so, coupled with the already written Society business plan came the developed idea of a social café:bar with visuals of sport, film & music.’
It’s easy to get labelled a sports bar as there is so much sport on all of the time and therefore, we have to admit it does take up a large proportion of our week but it’s not just sport and to be honest, the film & music becomes much more of an event type approach rather than; just come watch the football for example.’
It was perfect timing actually, Society had just done their own version of Glastonbury, ‘The Society Weekender’ where on the same weekend of The Official Glastonbury Festival, Society celebrated everything that was local; 25+ Local Bands, 15+ Local DJ’s, worked with local businesses, showed 15+ films as well as local lad Thomas Turgoose’s This is England’s whole back catalogue on their 80ft screen, Yes 80sqft screen.
The Society Weekender was absolutely brilliant Brett goes on to say, we really wanted to deliver a totally local approach to music & film, make it an event for people to come to and stay with a little bit of everything. All local bands, if music wasn’t your thing, we had so many different genres of films playing on the outside big screen and the weather was terrific, Glastonbury on the screens playing live performances and lots of local traders offering merchandise & street food; we even had our own wristbands made to give it a real festival feel. That’s what I meant when I said earlier, the sport is constant and with so much on there is always something to watch but when we incorporate the music & film its more of an event or at least themed.’
Society has a calendar of events for the next few weeks with such things as Ladies Night in association with Women’s Aid coming up this week, a Tennis Dress Up night which is a nod to this weekend’s Wimbledon Final’s Days, they have an outdoor BBQ with pop up restaurant Social Burger on Sunday with a few different bands / acts playing to celebrate. With weekly Film Nights, Comedy Nights, Netflix Votes Nights it wasn’t becoming so easy to dismiss the previous thought of lesser Music & Film within their ethos.
We love to do things differently, or at least try and do something somewhere else doesn’t offer Brett explains, We have a huge outdoor stadium with tiered seating that nowhere else has in the UK within a hospitality venue, we don’t just show a film (Which they do every Friday 4pm & 7pm ) we look at creating a menu that suits the theme such as a hog roast, when we showed Labyrinth or we once did a children’s party Finding Nemo and made fishfinger sandwiches, that coupled with our very own Popcorn Machine, Sweet Shop & own kitchen that makes hotdogs (Foot:Long Dogs) burgers (Social Burger) and many other menu items it really does give you the feel of being in an outside cinema.’
We show old classic music concerts on the TV’s both inside & outside of all genres, mainly from the 70’s onward which again becomes an event, a different setting for someone to enjoy. We do Music Bingo once a month with huge prizes on offer, themed quiz’s monthly again giving away big prizes of up to £500 and with our Live Music Sunday’s starting again in August with like to think we have a nice balance of Sport, Music & Film.’
Brett as always talks exuberantly about his businesses, Cleethorpes and what he aims to achieve with each venue and Society is no different.
I’d love to have school trips with young people watching a film while we feed them a bespoke menu, work with after school clubs to put on a music bingo event, show educational part of the curriculum DVD’s to give the student a different stimulus out of the classroom. We are currently working with a couple of charities putting on film nights for autistic young persons and underprivileged people so we are making inroads into giving a little something back that way.’
Brett doesn’t let up in his direct approach to most things but you can’t knock his efforts in trying to do things differently, give something back & create a business that is away from the norm and if sport isn’t your thing then Society has so much more to offer. With their first birthday coming up, Boozy Bingo, Private Casino Night, 1st Birthday Party and the start of the Premier League Football Season ( August 8th – August 11th ) if you were a Society virgin or a regular customer do yourself a calendar note and keep those few days free as they are bound to be a celebration of all things Society because as the social media suggests, this is our society!
Contact Gi Grimsby
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