We were given a tour of The Forum, Sheffield, after refurbishment

The Star, Sheffield

We were given a tour of The Forum, on Devonshire Street, Sheffield, as it re-opened after a refurbishment

Transcript

00:00The Forum on Division Street has just reopened after a big refurbishment and I'm just going

00:08to get a guided tour by the Assistant Manager, Anne Gayeaux. So, let's go and have a look.

00:13Anne, I understand the Forum has been refurbished. Could you show me around please?

00:18Yeah, of course, yeah, if you'd like to follow me.

00:30So, as you know, Forum has been around for 30 years now in Sheffield and we always like

00:39to reimagine the space and make it nice and fresh again and this is just what happened

00:44for the past few days. We've reopened on Friday as a dual space, a fusion between a coffee

00:50shop and a craft and cocktail bar. So, this is the bar area. We've rebranded completely

00:59to encapsulate those changes. So, if you'd like to follow me, I'll show you the coffee bar.

01:03Thank you.

01:05So, this is another extension that has quickly changed over the past few days. So,

01:10it's a lot more, you know, a lot brighter, a lot more inviting, a lot more

01:15subtle and can be really, you know, changed around and moved about to fit the customer's

01:24needs. So, that's still a really nice area to hire but the main change come just down there

01:31on the coffee bar. So, we now have a brand new offering around coffee, really extended on what

01:38we already had and added for, you know, that new population that are enjoying coffees and

01:46soft drinks and still want to go out and enjoy a little bit of that Sheffield life.

01:53So, we've collabed with Forge Bakehouse. So, Forge Bakehouse, which is a Sheffield

02:01and bakery who has many, many sites around the town and they're really proud of themselves,

02:09a great product and that's what we've witnessed over the past few days, just beautiful products.

02:14So, we've got pastries and fresh bread that we use, transform but also sell as retail

02:20and then we sell coffee and serve coffee from Darkwoods, which is a Huddersfield-based roastery

02:29who do beautiful speciality coffee. So, really nice quality coffee and we transform them into

02:35whatever drinks people may drink. So, the main gist of the refurbishment has been the daytime

02:43around the coffee sales. We open till 9am every day. So, for all of your coffee and pastry needs,

02:50we've got free Wi-Fi. So, we are more than happy to welcome anyone working from home

02:55that's still on that kind of environment and just offer very simple, beautiful product to

03:01the people of Sheffield. Are there any changes to the forum in the evening or is that as was?

03:08We have added a few lines, craft lines. We're going to focus a lot more on craft beers and

03:14beautiful product local or slightly a bit further away. We also have a new wine menu,

03:19which I'm quite passionate about. So, we've got some beautiful wines from Italy, France,

03:25but also Argentinian and we have an English bubbly, which is really, really nice. So,

03:32we've just improved on the products that we've had and we also have a brand new cocktail menu.

03:39Tell me a little bit about the coffee bar here. Yeah, of course. So, we have a brand new coffee

03:44machine, beautiful coffee machine and we offer different, you know, freshly grounded options for

03:50you guys. So, we've got our house beans, which is currently a true North collaboration with

03:56Darkwood and we also offer a single estate guest espresso, currently from Brazil, but we'll keep

04:02that nice and fresh and change every now and then. We also have filter coffee. Filter coffee has a

04:07bad rep, but done right is really, really nice. And then, yeah, we sell freshly made bread. We've

04:14got some beautiful pastry, freshly made sandwiches every morning and just a nice simple offering for

04:21you guys. What sort of feedback have you had so far from people who have visited so far? Yeah,

04:25very overwhelmingly positive in my experience. I've been in every morning since the reopening

04:31and people are surprised and pleasantly surprised about the space. I think we've managed to capture

04:38I was going to say like nice British weather because it's so bright. I wouldn't probably say

04:43that, but it's still so nice and bright out here. It's a very nice and chilled

04:48vibes and I think people are willing to spend a little bit of their time here

04:52to just relax, which is always nice to see.

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