A cancer battle was the inspiration behind a Chester family chasing a lifetime dream of opening a wine bar in the city.
Jade Barrett, 27, had long harboured a dream to run a wine bar/deli in Chester, but it was only after her mum Sandra got the all clear from an aggressive form of breast cancer that the pair decided life was too short not to take the plunge.
Now they are weeks away from opening their new business Ginger, where Harvest Moon used to be on Northgate Street.
The mum and daughter have even given up their jobs to run Ginger full-time - Jade worked as fundraising manager for the Clatterbridge Cancer Charity for seven years and Sandra, a qualified chef, ran Chester Catering for 25 years.
She will be doing most of the cooking at Ginger, which is set to open during the weekend of November 6, a place Jade describes as ‘relaxing, chilled’ and ‘somewhere to enjoy good music, great wine and nibble at pates and cheeses’.
A family friend who is a fisherman, will also be doing his share by catching the fish for the homemade pates.
“The idea behind Ginger is that it’s somewhere to meet your friends, catch up over a bottle of wine and just unwind,” explained Jade. “Think of us like a regular deli with breads, cheeses, charcuterie, cakes, pastries and more. We’ll be a regular deli you can take away or take a seat.
“We’ll serve coffee which we’re currently creating with a local family-run roasting house and we’ll serve carefully selected fine wines that we know where they come from, Chester themed craft beers, ales and lager.
“We’re not a pub, not that being a pub is a bad thing, as I grew up in The Marlborough Arms! We just don’t plan to have a mammoth selection of spirits, but we’ll have a gin of the month, whiskeys, with gin tasting evenings, whiskey tasting evenings and a small selection of others,” added Jade.
Local all the way
And although Jade is aware that many Cestrians had very fond memories of Harvest Moon, she hopes her customers will appreciate the fact Ginger is also an independent business and she promises everything will be ‘local, local, local’ all the way.
“The stuff we don’t realistically have time to make, we’re sourcing local. A lovely lady called Justine is baking our cakes and there will be a miniature gingerbread man served with every coffee to tie in with the name, which I still don’t really know the reason behind! After six months of ideas we just conjured up Ginger and loved it.
Related: Harvest Moon coffee shop closes
“We will have a music licence, but don’t plan to have bands as it isn’t a big space. We plan to have live music every other weekend - local singers, acoustic guitars, saxophonists, that sort of thing,” said Jade.
“I’ve been stopping buskers in Chester asking if they’d like to use the place as a) somewhere to earn a few quid as I’ll pay them and b) as a platform to get themselves known. We’re really keen to showcase Chester’s talent.
“The back half of the shop provides a great space to push tables together, so we’re also keen to have activities in the back area such as wreath making in the run up to Christmas, ceramic painting for mums with their children which we’ll send off to have kilned to collect the following week, other craft activities as well as the drinks tastings,” she added.
“Opening a business like this was something I always wanted to do, it was always my ‘If I won the lottery’ dream. I haven’t won the lottery but when a friend said I should consider it seriously and I had the encouragement from my family, we just thought life was too short.
“Mum is also really excited by Ginger and we decided, we’ve had our scare, let’s seize the moment. We will work together to ensure Ginger is a huge success, and we’re the best of friends so this really is a dream come true.”
