One of York’s much-loved bars has just reopened after a major refurbishment.
Dusk on New Street has a bold new look. As these pictures show, the interior is now filled with colour, and the ground floor bar has moved.
We spoke about the changes to Amanda Monaghan, who is the co-founder with husband Richard of Fabler Bars, which owns Dusk.
Why did you decide to do the refurb?
Dusk was opened as a bar 19 years ago and when we took over about 18 months ago, we didn’t want to touch it because everyone loved Dusk. The cocktail menu was a favourite and staff told us not to touch it, so we were a little scared to do something. Over time, we built up to what we knew the audience loved and understand what Dusk needed to be and as things were getting tired after so long it was time to invest.
Are you pleased with the finished result?
Super happy with the refurb. We looked at different pubs and found a bar in Edinburgh that we adored. We even ended up employing an interior designer from Edinburgh who came up with the scheme of bright colours and objects all based around the theme of tarot because we thought it would fit with the team and the building.
The biggest change was moving the bar. We felt that it was too busy, and we couldn’t serve people quick enough.
Last Saturday night people were actually dancing downstairs because there was space instead of the big queues in front of the door.
What’s the idea behind the new look?
Because of it being a Georgian building, we knew we wanted to keep it unique and independent, we didn’t want to go with anything too girly and pastel.
The theme came up from the idea of tarot, the idea that the universe shuffles and you decide and there are all these consents and that was how we started the brand.
We had the sun, added on the moon and snakes – the idea that we are all wild spirits.
What’s the reaction been like?
About 99% of people love it. The team love it as they have more room, and it is more practical as well as looking cool. As a team they feel proud of it.
Customers love that they can sit at the bar. One lady said, “This interior is like what Dusk should have been.”
People feel like it’s right.
However, a few people have said that they don’t like it. With change we’re not going to please everyone, 100% of the time.
Would you consider opening any other bars in York?
Alongside Dusk we also have the Thor’s pop up bars.
When we took Dusk on, people didn’t want us to turn Dusk into Thor’s with it being very different audience.Thor’s is more party and touristy whereas Dusk is a lot more York hospitality, a student bar.
Both have completely different audiences, but I love that.
It makes it really interesting. You can learn different things from different businesses.
One thing about Thor’s is you get crazy peak periods like around Christmas so we learn how to manage speed of service which we can then bring back to this bar.
What’s next for you and your business?
So we have got our eyes on some other bars, like bricks and mortar bars.
We are currently waiting on permission to open a semi-permanent bar in Sheffield which will be a Thor’s bar but stays up rather than comes down.
Definitely as a business we are ambitious, and we never want to sit still. I think there will be a lot more coming forward.
What’s your main message to York people?
For me, it’s about making people know we aren’t changing the essence of Dusk. Dusk is like a special child of mine, and I love it so much that you just want to protect the essence.
Anyone that has been to Dusk before will hopefully understand this is an evolution not a revolution, we just want people to feel welcome here.