Noah's Goat Wine Shop & Licenced Cafe in George Street, Hastings, East Sussex

SussexWorld

Noah's Goat will open on November 29 2024. It's at 68 George Street, Hastings Old Town.

Transcript

00:00I'm Nicky and this is Nick and we are opening Noah's Goat, an odd name I know for a wine

00:08shop and licensed cafe, and Nick will tell you why it's called Noah's Goat.

00:13According to legend, when Noah's Ark reached dry land, they allowed the animals to roam

00:19and Noah was intrigued that the goat was coming back rather frisky every night.

00:24So he followed the goat up into the mountains and discovered that he was eating a new strange

00:27fruit. To cut a long story short, Noah partook of the fruit himself and ended up being found

00:35by his sons the following morning naked with a chicken roosting on his head in the barn.

00:40And essentially that Noah had discovered grapes and discovered the effect that they had on

00:46them when they ferment. And according to the legend, that is how wine was born.

00:52There'll be a more detailed version of the story up in store if you care to visit.

00:57So Nick and I took over the stag in the old town about seven and a half years ago now.

01:04We had never run a pub before, we fell in love with it, we took it over almost by accident.

01:11We took a long time learning how to make it work, what to do, how to run a pub.

01:18We made a lot of mistakes, some of which actually were happy accidents and worked very well,

01:26and some of which we learned from. We had a great time there, loved it.

01:33Sad to leave but for various reasons had to. Couldn't decide what to do next, can't retire

01:40yet, we're too young for retirement but too old to start anything too new and too different.

01:47So in our 60s we decided to start a wine shop, a licensed cafe. We had talked about it as one of

01:55those things you talk about a lot, you dream about, but we never actually thought we'd do it.

02:00And then we walked along George Street and saw what was Clockwork Crow become vacant. And it

02:08has always been our favourite shop and our favourite site, we love it, particularly the

02:12caves at the back. We kind of both looked at each other and went, oh let's go for a coffee and talk

02:20about this. And it was at that point that the dream kind of became a reality. We went to Pettifee,

02:26we sat and had a coffee, and over a large slice of cake we talked about how we could make this

02:33a reality. And we actually, I mean Nick's favourite phrase at the moment is that you never die

02:39wandering. And we just thought, we've got nothing to lose really, so let's give it a go.

02:48So we phoned the landlord, apart from our pension, but hey ho, you know. So we phoned the landlord,

02:54we had a meeting, we got the premises, it kind of snowballed. So it's taken us, this has all taken us

03:00by surprise. And we found ourselves then leaving the stag, we've handed it over to two lovely chaps

03:07who want to run it in the traditional vein, keeping all the folk music and stuff. And we

03:14thought we would give this a go. So we then found ourselves standing in a completely empty shop,

03:19and there was a moment of panic when we looked at each other and went, what the bloody hell have we

03:24done? And then something absolutely magical happened. All of the people we've met since

03:31we've been in Hastings, all of the people that have become good friends, some people we didn't

03:36know very well, all turned up with paintbrushes, with screwdrivers, with shelves. It was

03:45unbelievable, I cannot tell you how amazing it was. This place was full of people helping and building,

03:53and two weeks later we've got this. A friend of ours turned up, who's a sort of retired builder,

04:00and helped us design and build the shelves for the wine. Nick found a second-hand bar online.

04:06We had armies of painters, and an amazing, very talented friend of ours did the window decorations,

04:14reupholstered the bar stools. Another friend has lent us some beautiful original champagne pictures

04:20for the walls. Incredible, just incredible that we could have done this in two weeks. We're

04:26so proud. Nick, as I say, knows a lot about wine and he's worked with a local

04:31wine wholesaler to come up with what we hope is a very eclectic selection.

04:39We're very passionate about having affordable wine, so we've got wine on our shelves that's

04:45anything from £10 up to £65, but if you want to grab a bottle of wine on your way home for

04:50dinner that night, £10 isn't too bad, and it's very good wine. But over 80% of the range is £20 or

04:59under. Which I think is really important, but we've also got beautiful gift stuff. We've got

05:04unusual stuff that if you're not sure what you want, you can come in and have a chat. We can

05:09point you in the direction of some different stuff. Nick really knows his stuff with wine,

05:13and he's happy to talk about it 24 hours a day, that and football. I know a little about wine,

05:20I'm learning all the time, again happy to discuss it. I'm very keen on some of the labels.

05:27We're going to do a small food offering, just some appetisers, some nibbly stuff to go with

05:33wines and beers. We're very fond of two local beer suppliers, so we are Stocking Longman

05:42and Brewing Brothers. We have good relationships with both of them, and we think their product's

05:46super. So it's not just wine, it's beer, spirits, a lot of local stuff and a lot of stuff further

05:54afield. We're going to have six small tables here, so it'll be a nice place to come, relax,

06:02have a drink, enjoy yourselves. We will be doing coffee and cake and so forth as soon as I get a

06:09coffee machine. I haven't quite sorted that out yet, but our idea is to have somewhere where you

06:16can come, quite small, intimate, listen to some live music on a Saturday afternoon, have a nice

06:21glass of wine, get some advice on wine if you want to buy it, buy presents, all sorts of things really.

06:30No, I like the idea of music on a Saturday afternoon, because most places do Sunday.

06:34I think it's important with live music, you don't split the audience. So we thought we'd try

06:40Saturday afternoon, see how that went. We used to at the Stag do Sunday afternoons, and we'd stagger

06:44that so that people could go to the Jenny and then come to us for a double whammy of music.

06:51But we thought we might try Saturday afternoon, see how that went. A lot of music, a lot of opening

06:56hours, a lot of all sorts. We'll take advice from customers, from the guys that come in, see what

07:01they want, when they want it. We've got a license until 10. We're planning on starting in December

07:08quite gently and going till eight o'clock, seeing what sales come from the wine shop, what sales come

07:15from people wanting to come and relax and have a drink. And we'll kind of take it from there

07:20really, and a bite to eat. So we haven't quite worked out how we're operating yet. We're happy to

07:26be adaptable. And the other thing I guess I want to say is we're incredibly, incredibly proud to

07:32be part of George Street. Ever since we moved to Hastings, it's always been... When I first found

07:40out there was an Old Town Traders Association, this is when I worked in advertising and Nick

07:44was a writer and in publishing, I used to say, I want to be an Old Town Trader, because I loved

07:48the sound of it, because everyone was so friendly and such a nice supportive group. Never actually

07:54thought it would happen. And now I'm in George Street, everyone's been absolutely adorable

08:00and really supportive. A lot of the energy in the town has been diverted to St Leonard's in the last

08:06two or three years. I think it's important that the Old Town retains a bit of appeal and has

08:12as much variety as possible in the retail and the hospitality offer. And I think one thing that's

08:17been lacking for the last few years is a good local wine shop. And if we can combine that with

08:25a bit of hospitality and somewhere nice for people to go, then I think that's a good thing

08:32for this part of the town as well. I think it seems to be a model that's working for independent

08:39wine shops doing a bit of sales in-house as well, obviously with the competition from the

08:46supermarkets and the big units, it's quite difficult to be competitive unless you have

08:51a service-oriented business and you're offering something a bit different from

08:55from just browsing a supermarket shop. I think as well supermarket ranges are amazing now. I mean

09:01Mark's and Spencer's range is incredible, but the difference that we can offer, or a local shop can

09:07offer I think, is that you can chat and offer advice. Yeah, absolutely, which I think is quite

09:13important. You're probably not going to get it from the person

09:16filling the shelves up in a supermarket.

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